Kinder Morgan regularly conducts oil spill drills like this one.
Image Credit: Kinder Morgan
July 04, 2014 - 5:45 PM
KAMLOOPS — Kinder Morgan has not been providing sufficient information about how it plans to mitigate concerns in Kamloops and elsewhere and the B.C. Environmental Assessment Office is not pleased.
The province submitted more than 70 information requests, specific to spill response, prevention and recovery systems as part of the National Energy Board’s review of the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain Expansion project.
“In a number of cases, Kinder Morgan’s responses do not provide sufficient information,” the Ministry of Environment said in a release. “That makes it difficult for the province to evaluate whether the project will include world-leading spill systems.”
World-leading spill systems (for land and water) are two of the five requirements that must be satisfied for the province to support any heavy oil pipeline.
As a result the B.C. Government has filed a motion to the National Energy Board requesting the company provide those details.
The City of Kamloops applied for intervenor status, which was approved, so they could question the company if satisfactory answers could not be found prior to the hearing, specifically on environmental impacts.
The proposed expansion will see pipeline travel through Westsyde, the airport gateway, Kenna Cartwright Park and possibly Lac du Bois. The proposed Ajax Mine potentially sits in the path of the pipeline as well.
The hearing process will begin later this summer and is expected to close at the end of June 2015. If approved, construction should begin in 2015 or 2016 with the twinned pipeline expected to go into service beginning in 2017. The twinning will allow the system to move 890,000 barrels per day, a significant increase over the current 300,000 barrels per day.
To contact a reporter for this story, email Jennifer Stahn at jstahn@infotelnews.ca or call 250-819-3723. To contact an editor, email mjones@infotelnews.ca or call 250-718-2724.
Image Credit: SOURCE/Kinder Morgan
News from © iNFOnews, 2014