Pipeline builder TransCanada continues to work through the 32 conditions it needs to meet to gain the full provincial go ahead for a natural gas pipeline to feed a planned liquefied natural gas plant at Kitimat, one of its vice presidents told a Kitimat-Stikine regional district session here Jan. 30.
The Coastal GasLink line, to be 48 inches in diameter to provide gas for the planned LNG Canada plant at Kitimat, was approved by the province late last year but first needs to meet conditions as specific as employee behaviour, Bruce Wells said.
“The 32 conditions hold our feet to the fire,” he said.
Clearing work along the 415-mile route from northeastern B.C. to Kitimat has not started and won’t start until the customer, LNG Canada, first receives its own environmental approval and then decides if the project will go ahead.
When it comes to employee behaviour, Wells said workers on construction camps will be subject to a one-strike rule when it comes to narcotics, meaning if they are caught with drugs, they’ll be fired.
Workers can drink but if their behaviour gets out of hand, causes fights, or involves harassment, they’re fired, he added.
It may sound harsh but the people who come to these work camps don’t want to be hassled and want a stable, safe place to be, said Wells.
Other work ongoing includes negotiations with the Kitselas First Nations for a benefits agreement, Wells added.
Telegraph Creek director Dave Brocklebank did ask what would be done with trees that were removed during clearing, citing the burning of usable trees that happened on the Northwest Transmission Line.
Wells said trees that can be salvaged will be salvaged unless it would cause environmental damage.
He added that every kilometre of the route would be assessed for what to do with trees.
Terrace rural area director Jessica McCallum-Miller asked about earthquake training for workers since the pipeline would be next to a fault line.
Wells said the only place where that was found to be a potential problem was closer to Prince George and that in our area, the fault lines were very deep and not in need of mitigation.
In general, the pipeline is resilient and malleable to an earthquake, he added.
Field work planned for this year takes in finding locations of material that would be useful for construction and planned water crossing locations to ensure the correct crossing methods are to be used.
