The Regional District wants TransCanada to develop a common corridor for northern B.C. pipelines.
Rob Newell is the Director of Area G (Houston rural) for the Regional District of Bulkley-Nechako.
He says the Regional District is concerned that there are over five proposed pipelines with different routes across northern B.C.
“No common corridor, that’s one of the biggest problems,” he said.
With the timber shortage, wasting timber is a big part of that issue, he added.
Coastal GasLink Representative Scott Reid recently presented at an RDBN meeting about TransCanada’s proposed natural gas pipeline known as Coastal GasLink.
Reid said Coastal GasLink and Prince Rupert Transmission Project have difficulty sharing a route because the lines are separated significantly.
They are also operated by two separate companies, LNG Canada and Pacific Northwest LNG, and “it is a very competitive market,” he said.
Through the permits with Oil and Gas Commission, TransCanada has requested to co-locate where possible, Reid said.
RDBN Director Newell says his constituents seem most concerned about environmental risks.
A big part of that is the water systems and fish, and Newell says there are some parts of the proposed Coastal GasLink pipeline that should change.
“In some areas they should be going over feeder streams rather than under them… because of the possible problems with fish fry that are developing in those areas,” he said.
A second concern is acid rain, and Newell says he wants to see Coastal GasLink use world-class scrubbers.
“These companies should be meeting those requirements because if they don’t, sooner or later it comes back to taxpayers through health care costs,” he said.
He wants to see careful baseline monitoring (monitoring the terrain to ensure vegetation and wildlife are maintained to return to their original condition).
Newell raised this concern at a recent RDBN meeting where Coastal GasLink presented their plans.
The minutes record that Coastal GasLink representative Scott Reid said they have done significant field work to collect information about the original condition of the environment, which they’ll use for baseline monitoring.
