News and
Recent Items
Response
from Jan Hagen of EAO to Lachlan Russell of BC Hydro
Dec 10, 2001
It begins: "...allow me to summarize my main objections to many of your comments and the
serious allegations of a flawed process that you have forwarded with your letter..." and ends "I shall be
looking forward to hearing from you how BC Hydro intends to pursue a gas-fired power generation
project on Vancouver Island"
Jan Hagen, Project Director, Environmental Assessment Office ... HTML
BC Hydro withdraws PAGP application
charges EAO of "legally flawed" process
Nov 29, 2001
In short, the Project Proponents believe that the PAGP review
process has been unfair to the Project Proponents and has been legally flawed
in a number of respects. This flawed process has allowed those opposed to
PAGP to drive the agenda of the PAGP Project Committee. As we indicated
in the PAGP Application for a Project Approval Certificate, there is an
urgent need for additional power on Vancouver Island. That additional power
must be available by the 2004/2005 winter season. It is clear that we cannot
meet that schedule with this lengthy and expensive review process and we
hereby formally notify the EAO that we are withdrawing the Project
Proponents' Application for a Project Approval Certificate at Tebo Avenue,
and request that the EAO put the Project Proponents Application for a Project
Approval Certificate on hold while we assess our options. "
Lachlan Russell, BC Hydro, Nov 27, 2001 cover letter to EAO ... Word doc
BC Hydro response to Stage 2 project specifications ... Word doc
Project specifications for Port Alberni Generation
Nov 9, 2001
Draft specifications have been tabled. The public has 30 days, until December 17, 2001
to comment on the draft. Final specifications to be ratified on January 17, 2002.
Summary of Report Recommendations ... HTML
Draft Project Report Specifications ... HTML
Letter from EAO to Proponent ... HTML
Application for the Port Alberni Generation Project
Nov 9, 2001
The full application submitted to the EAO for PAGP. It's a 2 MB Word doc, compressed to a
500 KB zip file. Because of its size, it is not posted on www.sqwalk.com, but is available on request.
Please send an email to PAGapp@sqwalk.com
Port Alberni Council kills Tebo Ave site for PAGP
Oct 23, 2001
At last night's Port Alberni City Council, councillor Donna Brett introduce a motion to
have the PA City Council write a letter to BC Hydro saying the city will not
reintroduce a bylaw to rezone the Tebo Ave. site. Councillor Brett spoke to her motion,
saying that after hearing "many, many, many, many, many, many submissions from the
public, and all the written submissions, and the welcome input from all the volunteers, the medical profession,
and the wide public input," and while she recognises Port Alberni needs jobs, it is apparent that the
Tebo Avenue site just isn't a suitable location for a gas-fired generating plant. Councillor
Hira Chopra concurred, saying that he still thinks BC Hydro can find something to do in our town
to bring jobs. Councillor Mealey said, "It was fun. I learned a lot. This is democracy in action." Councillor
Lyle Price said the fact that the EA project committee recommended going to Stage 2 indicates the site is not
appropriate, but he wants BC Hydro to investigate another location in the valley. Councillor Cindy
Solda wanted to have a referendum on this topic but BC Hydro pressured the city for an answer before a referendum
could be organised.
The motion was voted on, with all except Dan Washington, voting in
favour. BC Hydro now has to write a letter to the Environmental Assessment Office request that their
application be withdrawn. If another location for this proposal is chosen anywhere, in or out of Port Alberni, there
will have to be a new application submitted to EAO and the whole process begins anew.
EAO orders Stage 2 Project Report for
Port Alberni Generation Project
Oct 19, 2001
...the Project Committee members agreed that further study and review input would
be required on topics such as, but not limited to, site selection analysis; air
emission modelling and air quality assessments including public health impacts;
noise impacts; project risks; socio-economic effects; and impacts on First
Nations traditional uses.
Thus, pursuant to Section 19(1)(b) of the Act, I hereby issue an Order
confirming that a Project Report must be submitted by your partnership prior to
the Project Committee making a final determination.
Order to Proponent ... click here
Project Committee recommendation ...click here
Rejection or repositioning?
Port Alberni council kills Tebo Ave rezoning.
Oct 10, 2001
Opponents are not jumping with glee, however, since the EAO application and review are proceeding
for Port Alberni Generation, at the Tebo site.
Larry Bell describes plans for BC Hydro
Oct 10, 2001
Despite escalating costs for the Port Alberni plant and the
$260-million pipeline, Bell said generating electricity on Vancouver Island
with natural gas makes economic sense.
Malcolm Curtis, Times Colonist ... article
Committee unhappy with review
Sept 12, 2001
Complaints are being made by some local members of the Port Alberni
Generation Project environmental review committee.
Graham Andrews, Alberni Valley Times ... article
Air Quality Impact Assessment of PAGP
Sept 11, 2001
*The general tone of the correspondence from the applicants has an air of uncritical
optimism that I find unconvincing. ... the statement "have no adverse health effects" (my emphasis) with
"below apparent threshold 99% of the time" is an example of uncritical optimism. Over the threshold
1% of the time means there should be some adverse health effect that fraction of the time, and not 0%.
*Why, in the face of these efforts are we considering adding to the basin, a polluting industry which
may negate efforts on the part of existing industry [to reduce PM10 emissions]?
*I am surprised at the relative weakness of technical detail in the air quality
impact assessment portion of the application. This project deserved a thorough analysis so as to convince
regulators and public that its air quality effects will be within acceptable limits. The application does
not convince me of this, neither does correspondence from the applicant convince me that they are serious
about the need to be critical in their own assessment of environmental impacts of their proposal.
Dr. Douw Steyn ... Word document
Sept 10 deadline for public submissions
Send this letter ... click here now
Citizens
Stewardship Coalition Website
CSC online videos ... Video index
Chief Judith Sayers presentation on Port Alberni Generation Project
June 5, 2001
All of these things are integral to us as First Nations and I daresay
all living people. The earth and everything that grows from it, air, and
water will be at risk by the proposed generation plant in the proposed
location on Tebo.
Chief Sayers presentation ...transcript
Public
hearings for Tebo Ave rezoning, will be packed for 3 days
May 31, 2001
The city of Port Alberni will be holding three open house
meetings to allow for public presentations and discussion of the rezoning
proposal for the Tebo Avenue site for PAGP.
On Wednesday, June 6, the
meeting is at Echo Center on 10 Ave, at 7PM. Following that, a second meeting
is scheduled for Thursday, June 7, and Wednesday, June 20.
Get your name
on the speakers list by calling 250-723-2146. Don't be shy. Port Alberni is
too important to be so offensively rezoned.
Alberni Environmental Coalition ... website
BC Environmental Assessment Office ... webpage
BC Hydro PAGP ... webpage
Port Alberni Planners reject Hydro Plant
Times-Colonist, May 4, 2001
Port Alberni (CP) - The city's advisory planning commission has rejected B.C.
Hydro's plan to locate a natural gas-burning electrical generator on Tebo
Avenue, but the plant could still be built there or elsewhere in
the city.
The seven-member commission met to discuss the proposed
rezoning of the Tebo Avenue site to utility from light industrial. The
Alberni-Clayoquot regional district and Port Alberni Chamber of Commerce have
also voiced their opposition to the plant's proposed site.
Planning commissioners voted to recommend that city council abandon the rezoning
process. Council will discuss the issue May 14.
Regional District recommends against PAGP rezoning
Apr 26, 2001
At a regular meeting on April 26 the directors of the Alberni Clayoquot
This is a significant event that will send a strong
message to the city and BC HYDRO that this project is not supported by the
surrounding communities. Although the city does not have to follow the RDAC
recommendation it is going to be difficult to ignore.
The Alberni Chamber of Commerce has also
recommended against the project at the current site. They filed a letter with
the city as part of the rezoning referral process stating that they did not
support a project of an industrial nature with a large stack in the proximity of
the Johnston Road Tourist corridor whether or not the emissions would create a
health hazard.
These two bodies have represented their contituencies
wishes. It is now becoming clear that the opposition to this project is not just
from a few naysayers. The citizens of the city can now be informed that the
surrounding communities and the business community are officially opposed to the
rezoning.
The Citizens Stewardship Coalition has been the key
catalyst group in leading the opposition to this project. We have helped
to create the conditions to allow the community to express its core values.
Members of the CSC should take this as an encouragement to keep moving
forward to build a broad coalition of interest which cannot be ignored by city
council, BC HYDRO, or electoral candidates.
The Power is Yours,
Keith Wyton
Port Alberni
BC Hydro announces
Port Alberni Generation Project (PAGP) Dec
7, 2000
BC Hydro
PAGP Project Newsletter Dec 7, 2000
Calpine's
tacky methods
to frighten children in San Jose into supporting a Calpine
project
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Introduction to Port Alberni Generation
Project (PAGP)
June 29, 2001
BC Hydro's natural gas strategy for Vancouver Island has three
immediate parts: a pipeline and two plants that
will use the gas.
- GSX: The Georgia Strait Crossing Pipeline proposal is for a pipeline that will bring BC gas from Sumas
in Washington State to Cobble Hill on Vancouver Island.
There it will connect with the Centra Gas line that runs
to Campbell River, and Port Alberni. More about GSX all
over SqWALK!
- ICP: Island Cogen in Campbell River is a 240 MW plant that
will be starting up in early summer 2001. The plant will
run at reduced levels using natural gas from the Centra Gas
pipeline, on terms that BC Hydro will not divulge. The
temporary air emissions permit is under appeal by two
environmental watchdog groups: Quadra Island Sierra Club and
Reach For Unbleached.
- PAGP: Port Alberni Generation Project is an eleventh-hour proposal to build a 260 MW gas-fired plant in Port
Alberni. The application was filed with the
Environmental Assessment Office in early June, 2001 http://www.eao.gov.bc.ca/PROJECT/ENERGY/PAGP/home.htm
Without both PAGP and ICP, there appears to be no need for GSX.
Without GSX, PAGP and ICP would appear to be without fuel. If
the environmental consequences of one project would not happen, or
could not happen, without the other projects in place, then the
only meaningful assessment of environmental consequences is of the
three projects together.
The three projects are also interdependent economically, as
they are all components of an electricity supply megaproject.
BC Hydro had a previous project in Port Alberni - Port Alberni
Cogeneration (PAC). It received a project approval
certificate from the Ministers of Environment, and Employment and
Investment on November 24, 1999 (http://www.eao.gov.bc.ca/PROJECT/ENERGY/PAlberni/cert/cert50.htm)
Not long after this, the original proponents of PAC, ATCO and
Pan Canadian, pulled out, or were pushed out. The project proved uneconomic or
unprofitable for some or all parties involved. All that
remains now of PAC, is the active certificate (which is good for
at least five years.) There does not, at present, appear to
be active interest in the project, either by BC Hydro or by the
certificate's owners - ATCO and Pan Canadian Petroleum.
In order to make this new project, Port Alberni Generation, attractive to potential
partners, BC Hydro may have had to absorb the risk. Hydro has
taken an equity position in the project, just as they have done with GSX. This was not part of the
original ICP
deal, and it was not part of the earlier PAC deal. One of the strong arguments in
favour of letting independent power producers (IPPs) into the
generation business in BC, was that public capital would not have
to be tied up in power projects. Clearly the economics of
natural gas generation on Vancouver Island is not a slam dunk for
companies looking for straightforward returns on equity - BC Hydro
is now apparently also in the business of making such investments attractive
to private capital.
A pre-application meeting that was hosted at the EAO offices in Victoria on November 8,
2000 was attended by federal, provincial, regional, municipal, and First Nations agencies. The GSX Coalition and media representatives asked to be present, but were told that they could not
attend this meeting. It was a private meeting between BC
Hydro and certain "agencies".
Here are some considerations about PAGP:
- PAGP is to be located on Tebo Avenue in Port Alberni. This site is in town,
close to homes and shops, visually obvious, on the edge of
Roger Creek. A rezoning decision by Port Alberni Council
has been put on hold until the EAO process is complete.
This follows days of public submissions against rezoning the
site.
- PAGP will not be a cogeneration plant - its steam will not be used in the Pacifica Paper
mill, and will not replace older dirtier boilers there.
- Aesthetic consequences of the plant located at the top of
the hill going into Port Alberni. It may be the first
thing people see coming into town. The stack and its plume
will dominate the skyline. The tourism potential of the
town would take another hit.
- PAGP has more emissions controls than the original Port Alberni Cogeneration (PAC) plant
and is configured with better controls than ICP - reason enough for both communities to ask why lower standards were
originally certified.
- Water impacts on Sproat Lake. Even though Pacifica
Papers has a permit that allows sufficient draw-down, DFO is
already concerned with the effects on the lake of current
usage. PAGP intends to obtain water by using the balance of
Pacifica
Papers permit. Is this a reasonable use of the permit?
Can Pacifica sell the water?
- The effect of the enormous moisture and air emissions from the
plant. Remember that Port Alberni
is already troubled with serious and prolonged inversions and fog.
- Particulate matter from natural gas combustion is a concern,
especially as small particulates (PM2.5) have been identified
federally as toxic.
- Baseline air quality data is meagre. There are just two monitoring stations in Port
Alberni, on the hospital and at the airport. No study
demonstrates that these are located appropriately, or that
they are in sufficient quantity, to determine meaningful baseline data, or
to measure the effects from the proposed plant.
- Noise effects from a constant 60+ decibel source that is in
close proximity to homes..
- Promised jobs are an illusion. The 250 construction jobs are short term, specialized
skills are all imported, and there's no incentive to train local tradesmen
because there's only one plant to build. The 20 or so operating jobs also require some skills that are likely to be imported. Training
would have to be a community or North Island College
responsibility, not a project proponent obligation.
- No backup fuel system is proposed. It can be inferred
from this that an assured supply of natural gas (GSX) will be
in place, or that the electricity from PAGP is not essential -
either the need for PAGP is not there, or GSX and PAGP are
inextricably bound.
- The present and future price of natural gas is well beyond
what it was when this idea was first concocted. Is the economic justification
for gas-fired electricity still valid?
The EAO has never held a public hearing into a project seeking EAO approval.
Public consultations are held, as are information sessions, but
these do not have the same force as a hearing, in which rights
to present evidence, call witnesses, and conduct
cross-examinations pertain. The Minister of Sustainable
Resource Management (Stan Hagen) can decide that
a hearing is required. Typical of this kind of project, the public will be asked to
submit concerns in writing and perhaps in consultation session to the project
review committee. The concerns expressed are filed. They may be considered.
If the community really wants to participate in this project
review, then it is necessary to obtain political support for a hearing. Written submissions are
probably not strong enough. Media strategies are
powerful. Take it to the street.
Write or call your MLA, the Regional District, your mayor
(see contacts, below). Don't hesitate to express any or all concerns that you have. If you
believe that it is necessary to review the GSX, ICP, and PAGP in a
single integrated environmental assessment, you must write to the
NEB, the CEAA, your provincial MLA, the Minister of Sustainable
Resource Management (Stan Hagen), Minister of Water Land and Air
Protection (Joyce Murray), Minister of Energy and Mines (Richard
Neufeld) the Federal Minister of the Environment (David
Anderson).
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Aluminum Smelter for Port Alberni
August 13, 2001
Then Premier Ujjal Dosanjh came to Port Alberni on November 15 to announce a
pre-feasibility study
for an aluminum smelter to be located just south of town. The
full study is estimated to cost nearly a million dollars, funded
by the Alberni-Clayoquot Regional District, the City of
Port Alberni, the provincial and federal governments.
In the context of BC Hydro and power generation, aluminum
smelters require awesome amounts of electricity. 500 MW (PAC
and PAGP combined) for a small to mid-sized plant. 900 MW and up
for larger smelter. PAGP is not being proposed with
an aluminum smelter in mind - it's way too small.
The natural gas strategy and aluminum smelters were both Glen
Clark visions. Premier Gordon Campbell appears keen to
continue with these misguided projects.
There is a lot of idled aluminum smelting capacity in the
world. The price of electricity and the price of aluminum
are meeting at a point where making aluminum is not
cost-justified. Smelting operations with big electricity
contracts are finding it more profitable to sell that
electricity, than to make aluminum.
Communities hard hit for revenue and jobs are such easy marks for
opportunists, however - whether they are politicians looking for
easy votes, or redundant aluminum executives looking for easy
work. The only jobs that Port Alberni is likely to see will be
con jobs and a lot of hype.
Low priced electricity for industry was the carrot that Glen Clark
dangled to smelter builders. "Power for Jobs" he called
it. What sort of operating loss would
Hydro have to carry if they were forced to sell this power to an
aluminum smelter at the Clark smelter discount?
The feasibility study is complete, as of August 2001, and (no
surprise) Port Alberni is the lucky winnah! All that is
needed now is investors. http://www.sqwalk.com/Aluminum.htm#Finding
More about aluminum shenanigans here http://www.sqwalk.com/Aluminum.htm
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Links and Documents
Port Alberni Generation Project (PAGP)
Port Alberni Generation Project, EAO website
BC Hydro announces
Port Alberni Generation Project (PAGP)
BC Hydro
PAGP Project Newsletter
Port Alberni Cogeneration Project (PAC)
Port Alberni Cogeneration Project at the Environmental Assessment
Office
Project
Certificate for PAC
Letter to EAO from Tseshaht First Nation, 29Oct1999
Letter to EAO from Regional District of Alberni-Clayoquot, 09Sep1999
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Contacts and More Information
Alberni Environmental Coalition
Write or fax (250) 723-4666
Email Office Co-ordinator Maureen Sager
AEC Port Alberni Generation Project Pages
Citizens Stewardship Coalition
Write or fax (250) 723-4666
Email Office Co-ordinator Maureen Sager
Comments? Do you have information to share?
PAGP Line at SqWALK!
Write or call:
Alberni-Qualicum MLA
Gillian Trumper
Constituency Office: 3075 Third Avenue, Port Alberni, V9Y 2A4
Email: gillian.trumper.mla@leg.bc.ca
Phone: (250)720-4515
Fax: (250)720-4511
Regional
District of Alberni-Clayoquot
Chairman: Gary Swann
3008 - 5th Avenue, Port Alberni, V9Y 2E3
Email: mailbox@acrd.bc.ca
Phone: (250)720-2700
Fax: (250)723-1327
Port Alberni Council
Mayor: Ken McRae
4850 Argyle Street, Port Alberni, V9Y 1V8
Email: citypa@city.port-alberni.bc.ca
Phone: (250)723-2146
Fax: (250)723-1003
Minister of Sustainable Resource Management
Stan Hagen
Legislature Office: Room 133, Parliament Buildings, Victoria, BC, V8V 1X4
Email: stan.hagen.mla@leg.bc.ca
Phone: 250-356-9076
Fax: 250-356-8273
Minister of Water Land and Air Protection
Joyce Murray
Legislature Office: Room 124, Parliament Buildings, Victoria, BC, V8V 1X4
Email: joyce.murray.mla@leg.bc.ca
Phone: 250-387-1187
Fax: 250-387-1356
Minister of Energy and Mines
Richard Neufeld
Legislature Office: Room 134, Parliament Buildings, Victoria, BC, V8V 1X4
Email: richard.neufeld.mla@leg.bc.ca
Phone: 250-387-5896
Fax: 250-356-2965
Federal Minister of the Environment
Honourable David Anderson
Environment Canada: Environment Canada, 351 St. Joseph Boulevard, Hull, Quebec, K1A 0H3
Email: david.anderson@ec.gc.ca
Phone: (819) 997-1441
Fax: (819) 953-3457
PAG Project Proponents
Michael Costello, CEO, BC Hydro
Lachlan Russel, PAG Project Contact, BC Hydro
Doug Hildebrand, Columbia Pacific Consulting, Lead Consultant on PAG Project
Environmental Assessment Office Contacts for PAG
Jan Hagen, Project
Assessment Director (250) 356-5770
Karie Hardie, Project Assessment Coordinator
(250) 356-5327
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