The City of Abbotsford is still worried that the proposed twinning of the Trans Mountain Pipeline will cost taxpayers millions of dollars, and it remains concerned that more needs to be done to prevent a third oil spill in Abbotsford.
In its written submissions delivered to the National Energy Board (NEB) Tuesday, the city said that while it neither formally opposes nor supports Kinder Morgan Canada’s proposal to expand its pipeline, it remains concerned about the cost to municipalities, as well as the company’s preparation and response to an oil spill. (Read the city’s full submission here.)
The pipeline runs about 42 kilometres through Abbotsford, and Kinder Morgan also operates a pump station and tank farm on Sumas Mountain. Kinder Morgan has proposed tripling the pipeline’s capacity to 890,000 barrels per day. The plan would also add a tank to the Sumas tank facility.
Earlier this year, a study commissioned by the cities of Abbotsford, Surrey, Coquitlam, and Burnaby, along with the Township of Langley, found that an expanded pipeline would cost the five municipalities more than $93 million over 50 years. Abbotsford would incur infrastructure costs of $17 million spread out over 50 years, according to the report.
While Kinder Morgan disputed parts of the report in its National Energy Board filings, the city remains confident in its key finding that municipalities will bear a financial cost from an expanded pipeline.
“Our city doesn’t want to bear any costs with the pipeline being constructed in Abbotsford,” said Phil Blaker, the city’s director of building and development engineering.
The municipalities say there is a “substantial” time and money cost because it must obtain approval every time it works on infrastructure that crosses the pipeline’s right of way and some projects also require changes to the pipeline. The report suggests that the present pipeline currently costs Abbotsford around $500,000 in additional expenses every year and an expanded pipeline would add around $336,000 in annual costs. To mitigate some of those concerns and costs, Abbotsford says it would like to reach an agreement with Kinder Morgan prior to construction, or to have the NEB order the company to take steps that will reduce local expenses.
The city also wants Kinder Morgan to install more safety valves and increase protections against an oil spill.
There have been two oil spills in Abbotsford in the past 11 years. On July 15, 2005, around 210,000 litres of oil leaked from a section of buried pipe onto land near Ward Road; and on Jan. 24, 2012, around 90,000 litres of oil leaked from a tank at the company’s Sumas tank facility. In both cases, Kinder Morgan was criticized for its immediate response to the spill. In 2012, the National Energy Board found that an operator monitoring a spill detection system failed to properly deal with three alarms coming from one of the tanks. A leak from the tank was found more than four after the first alarm was noted.
Kinder Morgan has taken steps to mitigate some of the concerns raised since the most recent spill, fire chief Don Beer said Tuesday. This fall, the company brought an Oil Spill Contingency and Response (OSCAR) unit to Abbotsford, which had been a city request for years.
Abbotsford has asked that city first responders be given access to the unit and training in order to speed up a spill response.
The city is also asking the National Energy Board to order Kinder Morgan to add more valves to its pipeline and install automatic shut-offs that will stop the flow of oil when a leak is detected.
It is also requesting the NEB to order Kinder Morgan to construct its pipeline through the Sandy Hill neighbourhood by directional drilling that will lessen the disruption to the area’s property owners. The company has already indicated that is how it plans to proceed in the area, but an NEB order would make that a requirement.
The city will deliver its oral submission to the National Energy Board Jan. 29 in Burnaby.
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On Monday, B.C. Environment Minister Mary Polak announced that the province’s final submission to NEB confirms the project has not met B.C.’s five conditions for approval of heavy oil pipelines.
Polak said she is preparing to present legislation this spring to establish new standards for land protection, after discussions with Kinder Morgan and other companies, B.C.’s final submission to the NEB continues to recommend the pipeline expansion not be approved. But she said that is not the final word.
“We have been encouraged by the number of government and industry leaders who have also taken up the challenge and accepted the need to proceed along our five conditions, but we have not at this time seen evidence in the NEB hearing process that those conditions can yet be met,” Polak said.
B.C.’s five conditions include NEB approval, “world-leading” land and marine spill prevention and response, meeting legal obligations to aboriginal communities, and an unspecified “fair share” of provincial benefits from any new heavy oil pipeline project.
Kinder Morgan issued a statement Monday saying it continues to work with B.C., but requirements for aboriginal consultation, spill prevention and revenue sharing can’t be met by the company alone.
The project already faces 150 draft conditions from the NEB, in what Kinder Morgan Canada president Ian Anderson has called “the most highly scrutinized pipeline project by the NEB in history.”
Kinder Morgan is hoping for an NEB decision to recommend proceeding by May. Final approval is up to the federal cabinet.
