Kinder Morgan Canada (TSX:KML) has been granted permission by the National Energy Board (NEB) to proceed with the expansion of the Westridge Marine Terminal in Burnaby, but a new public hearing must now be held on the company’s plan to realign close to two kilometers of new pipeline in Chilliwack.
As part of its approval of the $7.4 billion twinning project, the NEB set 157 conditions, 98 of which had to be satisfied prior to construction
On August 30, the NEB confirmed that the company had met all the conditions to proceed with an expansion of its Westridge Marine terminal, which will be expanded to accommodate three oil tankers. It currently can accommodate one.
But Kinder Morgan is now planning to change the alignment of a 1.8-kilometre section of the proposed new pipeline section in Chilliwack, and since that is a variation on the route that was approved, and has raised a number of public concerns, the NEB has decided to require a new public hearing.
"For this one the board asked for the comments on the issue and received enough response, raising enough issues, that they decided that it needed to be dealt with in a public hearing," said Rob Steedman, the NEB's chief environment officer.
The general corridor is already approved. But exact alignment of the pipeline within that 150-metre wide corridor is being tweaked and adjusted as the company gets closer to a detailed route.The one section in Chilliwack became problematic because it would run a parallel to a BC Hydro high-voltage line. To address BC Hydro's concerns over an oil pipeline being so close to high voltage transmission lines, the alignment was pushed so close to homes that the company decided it would be best to move the new pipeline to run parallel with the old existing line.
But that line is now built up with residential development, so Kinder Morgan is considering horizontal drilling to avoid having to dig up residential streets and yards. The problem there is that the City of Chilliwack worries that horizontal drilling would have an impact on an aquifer from which Chilliwack gets its drinking water.
"That is a crowded right-of-way and it puts it closer to the City of Chilliwack's aquifer system, so understandably there are concerns about is that a better option?" Steedman said. "There's all these trade-offs, as they thread the needle through this particular bit of landscape."
There are six other route variances being considered, but they are not raising the same concerns that the Chilliwack segment is raising, Steedman said.
The hearings will be held in early 2018. Dates and times have not yet been set. Those who wish to participate in the hearings must register. The deadline for registering is Sept. 21.
[email protected]
