CRD urged to oppose Texada gas facility

Tanker traffic in strait poses danger: environmentalists

Bill Cleverley
Times Colonist
July 27, 2008

Capital Regional District directors want to hear from both sides before they weigh in on whether a liquefied natural gas plant, with its accompanying tanker traffic on the Inside Passage, should be built on Texada Island.

CRD environment committee members this week heard from representatives from the Georgia Strait Alliance, the Alliance to Stop LNG and Texada Action Now urging them to join the Powell River Regional District in opposing Alberta-based WestPac LNG Corp.'s plans to build a liquefied natural gas facility on Texada.

Saltspring Island director Gary Holman proposed the CRD add its voice to that of Powell River's.

Were the proposal to go ahead, coastal communities would be taking on the health and environmental safety risks associated with a project designed to ship natural gas to the U.S., said Holman.

"I think we should be supporting the Powell River Regional District," he said.

But committee members said they wanted to give proponents of the plant an opportunity to present their case before making a decision. Representatives from WestPac will now be invited to speak to the CRD board.

If the plant were built, LNG tankers the size of three football fields would travel up or down the Strait of Georgia every five days, Deborah Conner, executive director of the Georgia Strait Alliance and Arthur Caldicott, of the Alliance to Stop LNG and Texada Action Now told directors.

"Anything that's plying down the strait is of concern to us to us if it does have an environmental impact on the marine environment," Conner said.

The project could also feed LNG to the Lower Mainland and to Vancouver Island via existing pipelines.

Caldicott said the Texada proposal is designed to move natural gas into the high-demand U.S. market.

"B.C. produces far more natural gas than we use domestically. So any new gas coming in to Texada would net out with the same amount moving out of British Columbia elsewhere," Caldicott said.

"So in effect it's an import scheme to move more gas into the high-demand U.S. market. The other reason for Texada is that it's right on the B.C. Hydro transmission grid. It's the main line for Vancouver Island and with the gas-fired generation plant they have an easy connection to the grid."

He said tankers would travel through the Juan de Fuca Strait, up Haro Strait and then up the Strait of Georgia to Texada Island.

"This is one of the most densely travelled waterways in North America," Caldicott said.

The Powell River Regional District has passed a resolution calling on the federal government to implement a ban on LNG tanker traffic in the Strait of Georgia.