NDP allowing far `dirtier' plant than Sumas

Kent Spencer
The Vancouver Province, Thursday, October 26, 2000

A power plant in Campbell River will emit 10 times as much carbon monoxide as one proposed for Sumas, Wash. The power generator, due to open next month, "makes our job of opposing the American plant in Sumas much harder,'' Liberal MLA Barry Penner (Chilliwack) said yesterday. "The province is allowing a dirtier plant to be built with fewer pollution controls."

The Campbell River generator is the first such plant built in B.C. since Burrard Thermal 40 years ago. It will discharge almost three times as much nitrous oxide as Sumas, says a report by the GVRD, provincial and federal governments. The Campbell River plant is a third the size of the proposed 660-megawatt Sumas plant, but will not have devices to reduce carbon monoxide and nitrous oxides. Hu Wallis of the Environment Ministry said approval was granted several years ago when technology was less advanced.

The Sumas Energy 2 plant, which still requires approval by Washington state, is opposed by Fraser Valley residents who say the natural-gas-fired generator would add to the already-polluted air. The plant would be built 500 metres south of the Canada-U.S. border.

Penner said proponents of the Sumas plant are using Campbell River stats to bolster their case in Washington.

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