Squamish Mayor Says No to LNG Plant, with Strings Attached
Terminal pumped by premier would process up to 2.1 million tonnes of gas a year.
The mayor of Squamish and her council will not support the proposed Eagle Mountain pipeline and Woodfibre LNG plant in the region unless 18 conditions are met, according to an April 30 letter to the provincial Environmental Assessment Office.
“Due to the significant outstanding information and the community concerns that have not been adequately addressed, and that there are no guarantees at this time that that they will be satisfactorily addressed, the current applications are not supportable by the District of Squamish,” said the letter, signed by Mayor Patricia Heintzman.
The Woodfibre LNG terminal, planned for the site of a former pulp and paper mill seven kilometres west-southwest of downtown Squamish, would have a 250,000 cubic metre storage capacity and process up to 2.1 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas a year.
Owner Pacific Oil and Gas Ltd. is part of Indonesian billionaire Sukanto Tanoto’s empire. Natural gas supplier FortisBC, which built a pipeline in 1990 for the Sunshine Coast and Vancouver Island, proposes a 52-km long, 20-inch diameter gas pipeline from north of the Coquitlam watershed to Squamish that would feed the plant.
Squamish council is already in a legal battle with FortisBC, which filed a B.C. Supreme Court petition in March, hoping a judge will overturn council’s refusal to permit borehole testing for the pipeline.
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