Group says comment period running out on Howe Sound LNG proposal

Comment period on Woodfibre LNG Environmental Assessment running out fast

Gibsons Alliance of Business and Community (GABC) group is urging interested public to comment before time runs out regarding the proposal for a Liquid Natural Gas terminal for the Port Mellon area of the Sunshine Coast. There are only a few days left, (until Sunday, July 27) to comment on the Woodfibre LNG’s Environmental Assessment process, says GABC’s spokesperson.
“Input at this stage needs to focus on what needs to be studied to evaluate the potential impacts of the project,” Gayle Neilson states in the GABC press release this week.
The issue for residents and businesses doesn’t seem to be the project itself, so much as broader concerns about the trend to focused industrialized development for Howe Sound areas of the Sunshine Coast.
The press package highlights a website, futureofhowesound.org which opines:

“The added secured exclusion zones, large LNG tankers, pipeline and gas liquification plant will further the precedent that Howe Sound is an industrial zone rather than a planned developed area adjacent to Metro Vancouver.”
The advocates for a more locally planned development, assert that cumulative effects could have a negative impact on the area if unchecked industrial development leads to additional environmental issues similar to those Howe Sound communities have suffered from in the past.
The GABC group asks concerned residents to include questions about what studies need to be done to inform the process, including: effects on tourism, concerns for marine traffic including ferries in proximity to tankers, property values, noise or land, air and water pollution, and effects on fish and marine mammals.
“What studies need to be done to answer these questions?” the watchdog group urges residents to ask in their comments. The online form from the B.C. government for comment that can be found at http://www.eao.gov.bc.ca/pcp/forms/woodfibre_lng_form.html
For more info about their campaign, the GABC group suggests visiting: www.myseatosky.org
Fortis BC and Pacific Energy Corp. have entered into an agreement for FortisBC to conduct a feasibility study to determine whether or not the expansion of an existing gas pipeline is technically, environmentally, socially and economically feasible. Simultaneously, Woodfibre Natural Gas Ltd. has submitted a proposal to develop the Woodfibre site into an industrial LNG plant and shipping terminal.
Apryl Veld