B.C. Transmission Corp. receives approval for 255-km power line

Vancouver Sun
June 10, 2009

Several more hurdles need to be cleared before project proceeds

The British Columbia Transmission Corp. on Tuesday received provincial environmental approval for its $602-million power transmission line between the Interior and the Lower Mainland.

The plan to build an additional 255-km 500-kilovolt power line from its Nicola substation near Merritt to its Meridian substation in Coquitlam is designed to keep up with expected demand growth in the province's most populous region.

However, in granting the approval, Environment Minister Barry Penner and Blair Lekstrom, Minister of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources, said BC Transmission will have to minimize habitat loss for the northern spotted owl and secure a wetland site for the Oregon spotted frog. It will also have to provide funding for the Ministry of Forests to help mitigate the loss of timber harvesting land resulting from the project.

The loss of spotted owl habitat was a key concern of environmental groups when the new power line was first proposed, given that there were only seven owls living in the wild within the region at the time.

The environmental approval is only one hurdle of several the project has to clear. A news release from the Ministry of Environment noted that BC Transmission still needs to secure provincial licences, leases and a certificate of public convenience and necessity from the B.C. Utilities Commission.

The province has also committed to more discussions with first nation communities, which have been critical of the provincial environmental assessment process for not addressing impacts of earlier transmission-line construction on the proposed route.

The line would use existing BC Hydro rights of way for most of its length, but would require 74 km of new right of way to be cleared and widening of the right of way for another 60 km. BC Transmission wants the project completed by 2014.

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Environmental Assessment Office (EAO) webpages for the
Interior-Lower Mainland Transmission Project