Texada Island LNG proposal familiar to Coast

A proposal to build the second-largest liquefied natural gas plant in British Columbia has Texada Island residents banding together to fight it, and Sunshine Coast residents recalling the fight to prevent a similar plan for Port Mellon in the late 1990s./

By Greg Amos/Staff Writer
Coast Reporter

A proposal to build the second-largest liquefied natural gas plant in British Columbia has Texada Island residents banding together to fight it, and Sunshine Coast residents recalling the fight to prevent a similar plan for Port Mellon in the late 1990s.

Calgary-based Westpac LNG hopes to build a $2 billion liquefied natural gas (LNG) storing facility and gas-fired power plant at Kiddie Point, near Blubber Bay on Texada Island.

The proposed LNG plant was one information item on the agenda at a meeting between the Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) and the Powell River Regional District (PRRD) on Monday (Oct. 22).

“Some people on Texada Island have serious concerns about it,” said the SCRD’s Pender Harbour director John Rees. “The Texada Island director [Dave Murphy] is supporting his community, and the PRRD seems to be supporting him.”

At a September meeting of Texada Action Now, a group opposing the LNG facility, former PRRD chair Chuck Childress said the project’s fate should be decided by a binding referendum by people on Texada Island — an action the PRRD is currently looking into. Childress estimated the facility would emit two million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) each year, 4.3 times more than the four biggest pulp mills on the Georgia Strait combined.

Two thermal plants would produce 300 megawatts each, though only one will run year round. The second plant will produce dispatchable power, and will run only when the transmission grid detects a power shortage.

LNG shouldn’t be a foreign acronym to long-time Coast residents. Westcoast Energy tried to build an LNG terminal at McNabb Creek near Port Mellon in the late 1990s. Strong public opposition led to strong political opposition, and the project’s rezoning bylaw was denied in the wake of 1999 SCRD election in which every director who had supported the LNG project was either defeated or retired.

“Whether or not it had benefits, it became an idea that the community wasn’t interested in,” said Gibsons mayor Barry Janyk.

SCRD Elphinstone director Lorne Lewis said the Port Mellon proposal “generated some lively discussion,” and expects the current proposal will do the same.

“Storing that kind of stuff in an earthquake zone — there’s little you can do to convince me that is safe,” he said.

The facility could have either one 200,000 cubic metre natural gas tank or two 165,000 cubic metre tanks, said Mark Butler, president of WestPac LNG. The project would generate more than 300 construction jobs and 80 full-time positions when completed.

LNG from Southeast Asia would be brought to the facility by specially-equipped tanker vessels — up to 36 ships per year, according to the proposal. Aside from its marine accessibility, Texada Island is a valued location for an LNG plant due to its proximity to transmission lines and to a Terasen pipeline connecting Vancouver Island to the Lower Mainland and U.S. markets.

Though the location of the facility is far from any point on the lower Sunshine Coast, the marine traffic generated will affect the community, said Dan Bouman, executive director of Sunshine Coast Conser-vation Association (SCCA).

“We’re going to get drawn in, as are all communities around the Georgia Strait,” he said.

Westpac LNG, who count former B.C. attorney-general Geoff Plant among their board of directors, argue the project could contribute to greater air quality in the Fraser Valley through decommissioning of the Burrard Thermal Generating Station in Port Moody, which operates at a 300 to 400 megawatt capacity, but at only 32 per cent efficiency. Butler said the plants proposed for Texada Island (which could expand to 1200 megawatts in the future) would operate at over 70 per cent efficiency.

To Childress, natural gas is still the wrong approach for B.C.’s power needs.

“Given the premier’s newfound ‘greenness’, it seems somewhat absurd to be importing fossil fuels to burn to produce power,” he said, noting the B.C. energy plan calls for the province be energy self-sufficient by 2016.

Butler stresses the project is still in the very early stages and won’t move forward until after Nov. 2008, when a final determination has been issued by the Western Climate Initiative (WCI), a climate partnership between eight western provinces and states, including B.C.

The market-based approach used by the WCI to reduce greenhouse gas emissions will underpin the feasibility, or lack thereof, of Westpac LNG’s proposal, Butler said.

Between regulatory hurdles and construction, it adds up to a project that couldn’t be up and running until 2013 at the earliest.

T.A.N. meets Neufeld, Question Period

Representatives from Texada Island are in Victoria, Thursday, October 25-07 for meetings with Government and to attend the Question Period in the Legislature./

Texada islanders are looking for answers to their concerns about the LNG mega project proposed for Texada Island

Contact: Chuck Childress, Chair, Texada Action Now. 604-414-3537

Islanders deserve LNG input

In a public consultation process, one hardly expects to be told by the project proponent that their opinion doesn't matter. Yet that was the case recently on Texada Island./

By Sandy McCormick
Powell River Peak

In a public consultation process, one hardly expects to be told by the project proponent that their opinion doesn't matter. Yet that was the case recently on Texada Island.

Residents packed public meetings to hear speakers from WestPac LNG Corporation explain the Alberta company's proposal for a $2 billion LNG (liquefied natural gas) import terminal at the populated north end of the island.

Asked by one resident if WestPac would withdraw its application to build and operate the terminal if islanders were opposed, company president Mark Butler said he would not withdraw, but would leave the outcome to provincial and federal approving authorities.

Like other island residents attending Butler's presentations, I wanted information about the proposal. But regrettably, the facts imparted were tinged with the angst of knowing that whatever my opinion was about the plan, it didn't matter.

Initial information doesn't paint a rosy picture for islanders, who could lose both forestry jobs and ferry service as a result of the project.

As well as unloading highly explosive LNG, which would arrive from around the world in supertankers plying the Strait of Georgia, electrical power would also be generated at the site, known locally as Coho Point, an historical salmon habitat. To transmit the power to the grid, a right-of-way the width of a football field would be cleared the entire length of the 50-kilometre island, and transmission towers installed. This would remove a large chunk of land from the forestry sector and place further hardship on an already-struggling industry.

Because of the highly flammable nature of LNG, exclusionary zones around the loaded supertankers and the facility where they are being unloaded are required in other jurisdictions, where other vessels, and presumably people, cannot go. In Boston, Massachusetts, this exclusionary zone is three kilometres. When it was pointed out that Texada's only ferry terminal was less than three kilometres away, Butler said, "some adjustments to schedules" may have to be made. Texadans who rely on the ferry to get to school, health care and shopping were not happy at the prospect of the service being disrupted.

Ironically, it's the location, as much as the project itself that is upsetting to many people living on Texada. If the import terminal and electrical generating facility were proposed for the uninhabited south end of the island, where WestPac would have both a deeper port and closer access to power grids, the impact on the community's daily life would be significantly less.

While describing his presentation as the beginning of WestPac's public consultation process, Butler didn't open any doors to islanders to provide meaningful input into the process. In saying that only the approving authorities: BC's Environmental Assessment Office; the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans; and Transport Canada could influence the outcome, Butler seemed to egg on the community to bring concerns about negative impacts directly to those authorities, which local residents should do.

Since WestPac won't listen, this seems like the logical next step.

Sandy McCormick is a former Vancouver city councillor and school trustee living on Texada Island.

©The Powell River Peak 2007

Texada needs protection

It feels like rape--something very nasty and totally unacceptable being forced on someone/

Andrew J. and Pam Mackenzie

Gillies Bay

It feels like rape--something very nasty and totally unacceptable being forced on someone completely unexpectedly. This is how the liquefied natural gas (LNG) power station proposal felt ["LNG draws island ire," September 12].

We have had a house in Gillies Bay, on Texada Island, since 1977 and intermittently, the captains of industry and financial entrepreneurs attempt to install an ugly, moneymaking enterprise on Texadans, which will despoil the environment and destroy the beauty and tranquility of a gorgeous island in the Strait of Georgia.

Texada people may be few in number, but their commitment and focus and passion are incalculable when determined to protect the island. This is what is happening now on Texada. We have continued to enjoy the incomparable grandeur and beauty of the scenery and the peace and serenity.

Attempts must be made to stop the hypocrisy of politicians who mouth platitudes of publicly espousing green projects, but support an enormous environmental degradation such as an LNG facility. Everyone who wishes to stop this can support TAN (Texada Action Now) financially and by publicizing their opposition.

©The Powell River Peak 2007

Texada Action Now: New directors, new campaign

The Texada Community Centre in Gillies Bay was packed on Sunday night. Island residents were there to demonstrate opposition to the WestPac LNG and gas-fired generation project./

TEXADA ISLAND, BC – The Texada Community Centre in Gillies Bay was packed on Sunday night. Island residents were there to support the reformation of Texada Action Now (T.A.N.), to vote in a board of directors, and to plan next steps, which include an island-wide petition.

Nine directors were elected. Chuck Childress, a former director for Area D, was voted in as chair.

The society exists to strengthen the integrity of the fabric of the Texada Island Community.

What threatens the integrity of the Texada fabric today is the WestPac LNG proposal to build a huge LNG terminal and a gas-fired generation plant on the north tip of the island

“Everyone is concerned,” says Childress. “It’s clear from the response tonight that these people don’t want this project.”

But how do other people on Texada feel about it?

“We’re going to ask them, starting Wednesday,” says Childress.

Leslie Goresky, also elected as a director on Sunday evening, is co-ordinating the petition. On Wednesday, Goresky and other volunteers will be knocking on every door on Texada Island, petition in hand, and ready to talk about the WestPac project.

“We need to talk to residents and property owners, “ says Goresky. “If you’re not at home, we’ll leave a note. Please call us.”

“It is vitally important that this petition show where Texadans stand on this project.”

Arthur Caldicott, from Cowichan Bay on Vancouver Island, spoke about the impact on community of projects like this, and how a community can respond. His presentation was followed by questions and discussion.

Childress sums it up this way: “No-one who lives on Texada wants this thing. Our petition will make that fact clear. It doesn’t fit the provincial government’s climate change agenda. It’s like allowing smoking in one school alone in BC – on Texada.”

“We’re not going to let that happen.” Updated information is available at T.A.N.’s website, www.texadaactionnow.org.

For more information, please contact:

Chuck Childress, Chair
(604) 414-3537
childress@prcn.org

Richard Fletcher, Vice-Chair
(604) 486-6786
fletcher.richard@blueyonder.co.uk

Leslie Goresky, Director
(604) 483-8423
lgoresky@xplornet.com

Unstable Mix: Politics and Liquefied Natural Gas

Citing 'safety concerns,' feds fight LNG project back east -- but not along BC's coast./

By Rob Annandale
TheTyee.ca
October 11, 2007

Chuck Childress moved to "paradise" over 40 years ago. He enjoys nature, but this veteran of the mining, construction and pulp and paper industries is no enviro-fundamentalist.

Read the rest of this article at theTyee.ca:
http://thetyee.ca/News/2007/10/11/LiquifiedNatGas/

Texada Gas Project Raises Safety Fears

Isn't there a principle of basic democracy involved here? Shouldn't a community have a say in whether or not a development, especially one which is potentially dangerous big time, be built in its backyard?/

By Rafe Mair
The Tyee.ca


LNG tanker: not welcomed. Scared
islanders mad at no-show politicians.

Last week I chaired a meeting in Powell River to protest the plan to build a large liquid natural gas (LNG) storing facility and gas-fired power generator on nearby Texada Island. This area is one of the great natural beauties of the province.

I, like many of you I'm sure, get bogged down in megawatts and the like, but suffice it to say that the Texada generating facility would become the single largest independent source of electricity in B.C. since Alcan's Kemano project was completed over 50 years ago. The rest of the gas would go into Terasen pipelines for other uses.

The LNG will be brought to the facility by huge tankers probably every week to 10 days. According to the literature, it's not so easy to transport gas as it is for coal and oil -- LNG requires either pipelines or huge special LNG tankers. To liquefy natural gas, you need to cool it down to about -160°C where it will then occupy 1/640 (0.15 per cent) of the original volume. Upon reaching its destination, it then has to be converted back to a gas by passing the liquid through vaporizers to warm it. Then it is transported through pipelines as normal gas. About a third of the original energy in the gas is lost in this double-conversion process.

Thus, safety is not a theoretical question. In 2004 an LNG facility in Algeria killed 27 and in July of 2004 an explosion in Belgium from a facility cast debris four miles; 15 people were killed, and 120 injured -- many severely burned. It caused a billion dollars damage.

In 1944, in Cleveland Ohio, a liquid natural gas explosion incinerated a square mile. The explosion destroyed 79 houses, two factories, and 217 cars. Its heat reached 1000 degrees, killed 130 and injured 275. The spill that created this blast was approximately five per cent of the volume held by a modern LNG tanker. Though the safety of LNG facilities has no doubt much improved, this gives an idea of what happens if things go badly wrong.

No show politicians

Added to these concerns is the possibility of terrorism. If you were living next to a LNG plant and you knew that with relative ease there could be an explosion that would wipe out your community, how would you feel? If you live in Kerrisdale, the British Properties or Oak Bay, you have no such worries. Choose Texada Island and it would never be off your mind.

It's also interesting to speculate that because this LNG is not going to an expanded Burrard Thermal plant for the B.C. market -- a much cheaper option -- but is going into a pipeline terminating in the U.S., that the U.S. market is what's being targeted. This suspicion is fueled unto certainty by the fact that B.C. has plenty of gas for its own use. Thus, it would seem, Texada Island runs the risk, the Yankees get the gas.

The general feeling expressed at this meeting was frustration. The Powell River Regional District, thanks to recent amendments to the law, can no longer prevent a development supported by the Campbell government. The folks look to the Environmental Assessment Act for help and learn, as have the people living along the Sea-to-Sky highway, the residents of West Vancouver near Eagleridge, and the good folks in Delta, that the assessment, if any, is done after the deal is done and that the director (a Campbell appointment) has no power to stop a project. In fact Premier Campbell can refuse to allow an assessment to take place or restrict its powers.

There are several ways the Federal government could halt the project but the fact that the member of Parliament for the area, Blair Wilson, wasn't there, though invited, didn't inspire hope. The Tory candidate, John Weston, wasn't there -- considering how hard he's been campaigning, this is astonishing and can only call his political courage into question. Though the MLA, Nicholas Simons, was there, his colleagues, Environment critic Shane Simpson, Transportation critic Maurine Karagianis, Municipal Affairs critic Charlie Wyse and John Horgan, critic for Energy and Mines all gave it a pass.

On the Campbell government side, Richard Neufeld, the Minister of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources and the Environment Minister Barry Penner were both invited, and noted for their absence.

Not a NIMBY issue

The Campbell government evidently fears public questions and input. The Municipality of Delta will have a large truck highway built without their council being heard, much less approve, to serve a much expanded Deltaport they had no say in. These related projects will have a severe impact on air quality, on sensitive ecological areas including Burns Bog, and on the Agricultural Land Reserve, yet the Campbell government wasn't interested in what the people had to say. Even their usually loquacious Liberal MLA, Val Roddick, the self proclaimed protector of the ALR, was struck dumb.

Isn't there a principle of basic democracy involved here? Shouldn't a community have a say in whether or not a development, especially one which is potentially dangerous big time, be built in its backyard?

This Texada Island proposal is not a NIMBY issue such as having a half-way house in a neighbourhood might be. This high risk issue goes to the very soul of their entire community. Don't be fooled by the statement that the risk is an "acceptable one." If a risk is not restrained by any time limit, it's no longer a risk but a certainty waiting to happen.

If you live in Vancouver or Victoria you're probably saying "What the hell, this is progress! Can't stop having progress!"

Would you be saying that if an LNG plant was coming to where you and your family live? And therein lies the injustice. Large communities are spared high risk adventures. Communities like Powell River and Texada Island, without the population and political clout, must live with the risk without ever having had a fair chance to make their case.

Surely that can't be democracy even by British Columbia standards.

Critics in for tough battle

Laura Walz, Editor
Powell River Peak


PEOPLE POWER: A panel, including [from left] political commentator Rafe Mair, Texada Action Now spokesman Chuck Childress, Sierra Club of BC representative Tom Hackney, COPE Local 378 vice president Gwenne Farrell, and Powell River Chapter of the Council of Canadians representative Denise Reinhardt, made presentations at a meeting Monday night opposing a WestPac LNG proposal.

LNG opponents told to be ready for the fight of their lives

Political commentator and former BC politician Rafe Mair told people opposed to a proposed LNG storage facility and power generation plant to be prepared for the fight of their lives.
WestPac LNG has proposed a combined LNG (liquefied natural gas) import terminal and natural gas-fired power generation facility at the northern end of Texada Island. If the project passes through a variety of government and other approvals, large tankers would transport LNG from Australia, southeast Asia and the Middle East, arriving once every 10 to 13 days.

An outspoken critic of salmon farming in BC, Mair said the proposal was not an employment issue and the promise of jobs was an illusion. The issue in Powell River is "can industry, with government holding its hand, trample on the rights of communities, just because those communities happen to be small?" Mair said. "This is not a left-right argument . . . This is a right-wrong issue."

The meeting was organized by the Powell River Chapter of the Council of Canadians, Texada Action Now, the Sierra Club, and COPE (Canadian Office and Professional Employees) Local 378, which has launched a Take Back the Power campaign. Nicholas Simons, MLA for Powell River-Sunshine Coast, introduced Mair. People travelled from Gibsons and Victoria to attend the meeting.

"You must take action as a group and must stick with it," Mair told about 250 people who packed into the Town Centre Hotel on Monday night, October 1.

Chuck Childress, from Texada Action Now (TAN), said the perception is that the proposed location is an industrial site on an industrial island, but Coho Point is one of the best fishing spots on the West Coast and the island is pristine. He also said property values have been adversely affected and just the announcement is killing the retirement industry on the island.

"The people of Texada feel that we have the right to determine, as every other community does in this province, land use issues within our community," he said.

Mair supported the idea of having a referendum on the issue. "As one who has been in government and received petitions and that sort of thing, you don't spend a minute looking at mile-long petitions. If you have an actual scientific referendum that actually polls people fairly and squarely on a question, you have to listen to that."

Tom Hackney, from the BC Chapter of the Sierra Club, outlined the environmental impacts on the proposal, pointing out the project was a $2 billion investment in a fossil fuels infrastructure at a time when there is mounting pressure to change directions and move away from that technology. "That's an investment in energy that will not be available to invest in sustainable forms of energy, like energy conservation," he said.

Denise Reinhardt, from the Powell River Chapter of the Council of Canadians, announced the formation of a new group, Malaspina Communities for Public Power, which was holding its first meeting on October 23.

Public Meeting delivers resounding NO to WestPac LNG

A public meeting at the Town Centre Hotel in Powell River on Monday (October 1) delivered a resounding rejection of a proposal by WestPac LNG, a Calgary company, to build a LNG terminal and gas-fired generation plant on the north end of Texada Island.

It was standing room only as over 250 people told others in their community, media and local politicians, that these projects were not welcome here.

WestPac declined an invitation to be present.

More coverage to follow.

Meanwhile, here is the announcement of the public meeting.

Rafe Mair moderates a community discussion
Monday, October 1, 7-9 pm, Town Centre Hotel, Powell River
Shuttle will bring you to and from the Texada Island ferry.
Click here for more information.