Woodfibre LNG, a liquefied natural gas export facility planned for Howe Sound on the southern B.C. coast, is a big step closer to construction following receipt of a key permit from the B.C. Oil and Gas Commission on Tuesday.

The eight-page permit outlines the requirements the facility, owned by Indonesian billionaire Sukanto Tanoto, must meet for design, construction and operation — including a tsunami hazard study, a flaring notification plan and reports on emissions such as noise and black smoke.

The waters of the 44-kilometre long Howe Sound fjord, flanked by the Coast Mountains, are home to fragile glass sponge reefs, salmon, herring, porpoises and whales. Long polluted by industries on its shores, including a large copper mine, Howe Sound was returning to life after extensive rehabilitation efforts when Woodfibre and other new industrial developments were proposed.

Woodfibre LNG president David Keane called the permit “a positive step forward” for the project, which would see LNG offloaded from floating storage tanks near Squamish to LNG carriers as long as six football fields.

The LNG carriers would traverse the island-studded waterways of Howe Sound three to four times a month, accompanied by three tugboats and two pilots familiar with B.C.’s coast, according to the company.

“This permit is a large piece of our puzzle, and with it in place, we are working towards a final investment decision to proceed with this project this summer,” Keane said Wednesday in a news release.

Fracked gas export project to add carbon emissions equivalent to 170,000 cars 

According to the Pembina Institute, carbon emissions from the Woodfibre LNG project would add the equivalent of 170,000 new cars to B.C. roads each year, while the project would use the same amount of freshwater annually as 5,500 households.

Gas for Woodfibre LNG will be fracked in northeast B.C. and sent via pipeline to the coast.

Eoin Finn, a spokesperson for the Howe Sound group My Sea to Sky, said he is concerned that the oil and gas commission’s permit approves the use of two aging LNG tankers that Woodfibre plans to bring from Singapore for floating LNG storage.

According to the company, the permanently moored tankers will be “refurbished.”

The 40-year-old tankers are “way past their best before date,” said Finn, a former partner with the global accounting firm KPMG who resides on Bowyer Island in Howe Sound.

“They would normally have been scrapped by now,” Finn told The Narwhal. “They’re amongst the oldest two per cent of the world’s 400-strong LNG tanker fleet. Both have been in accidents and have been patched up.”

Finn said new LNG tankers have thick hulls but old ones can develop weak spots and rust can affect the stability of the hull and joints.

“If you get a leak from the tanks onto marine steel at minus 160 [degrees Celsius — the temperature to which gas is cooled in the liquefaction process] marine steel becomes really brittle and you could hit that hull with a hammer and break it into bits.”

Tankers carrying flammable gas will intersect ferry crossings  

Finn, who holds a PhD in physical chemistry, said the U.S. does not allow LNG plants or tankers within 3.5 kilometres of significant populated areas.

“That cargo is full of flammable gas with the thermal equivalent of 72 Hiroshima-sized nuclear bombs aboard.”

Carriers picking up Woodfibre LNG will intersect with four ferry crossings in waterways with both freighter and recreational boat traffic, Finn pointed out.

If a collision occurs and a loaded LNG tanker develops a hole, everything within 500 metres will be frozen, Finn said. Should a tanker carrying LNG catch fire, he said people up to 3.5 kilometres away will suffer severe burns.

Woodfibre LNG is a member of the Society of International Gas Tanker and Terminal Operators, an industry organization that has promoted best practices in the LNG shipping and terminal industries for the past 40 years.

The society’s standards state that waterways containing navigational hazards are to be avoided as LNG ports and that ports must be located in places where vapours from a release or spill cannot affect civilians. “Long, narrow inland waterways are to be avoided, due to greater navigational risk,” according to the standards.

Woodfibre LNG did not respond to a request for comment from The Narwhal by our deadline.

The location of the Woodfibre LNG project in Howe Sound. Map: The Future of Howe Sound Society

Orcas and other at-risk species could suffer from noise, flaring 

Finn said he is also concerned the Oil and Gas Commission permit allows the LNG facility to emit noise, light and black smoke and flares.

The permit stipulates the public, the district of Squamish and three nearby First Nations must be notified at least 24 hours before a planned flaring event or within 24 hours of the start of an unplanned flaring event lasting more than four hours.

“This ruling gives them permission to flare any time they want,” Finn said. “A flare is not my definition of a sightly object in the primary tourist route to Whistler.”

The Woodfibre LNG project, on the site of a former pulp and paper mill seven kilometres southwest of Squamish, has already received environmental assessment approvals from the B.C. and federal governments.

Orca whales, grey whales, Pacific white-sided dolphins and harbour porpoises will be subject to potential sensory disturbances from the project, according to Woodfibre’s executive summary for the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency.

Nine bird species listed as vulnerable to extinction, including the barn swallow and coastal western screech owl, and three at-risk amphibian species (the coastal tailed frog, Northern red-legged frog and Western toad) will be subject to potential sensory disturbances, habitat fragmentation and barriers to movement, the summary states.

Woodfibre donated generously to B.C. Liberals and NDP

The Oil and Gas Commission permit is the first major authorization for Woodfibre LNG issued by B.C.’s NDP government, which green-lighted the much larger LNG Canada project last year.

Woodfibre LNG, which employs NDP operative and former NDP cabinet minister Moe Sihota as a lobbyist, is a private company owned by Pacific Oil and Gas, which is part of the Singapore- based Royal Golden Eagle group of companies owned by Tanoto. Forbes pegs Tanoto’s personal wealth at US $1.4 billion.

The Royal Golden Eagle group, which has assets exceeding $20 billion, includes pulp and paper and palm oil divisions.

Woodfibre LNG donated more than $137,000 to the B.C. Liberal Party between 2014 and 2017, according to the B.C. political donations database. The company donated more than $72,000 to the B.C. NDP over the same time frame.

More LNG projects ‘knocking on our door’

Karen Tam Wu, regional director of B.C. for the Pembina Institute, a clean energy think tank, said Woodfibre LNG and the significantly larger LNG Canada project have already been considered in B.C.’s carbon “budget.”

LNG Canada will produce 9.6 megatonnes of carbon per year by 2050, according to the Pembina Institute. B.C.’s legislated target for total carbon pollution is 13 megatonnes a year by 2050.

“We’ve always known that this was coming … the challenge of meeting our climate commitments with this project and LNG Canada’s first phase is coming to fruition,” Wu told The Narwhal.

The B.C. government has said it will devise a plan within the next two years to enable B.C. to meet its 2030 carbon reduction goals. The government’s current plan is a blueprint for meeting only 75 per cent of B.C.’s targets.

“We do still need to see that,” Wu said. “And we have a lot of moving LNG proposals out there. So we need to see how the government will be able to get us on a path to fully meet our climate commitments and reconcile that with LNG projects that are knocking on our door.”

About 10 LNG facilities are still proposed for B.C., according to the group LNG in Northern B.C. As of January 2019, plans for seven additional LNG facilities had been cancelled.

LNG undermining carbon reduction goals: new report

LNG is often touted as a transition fuel to help lower global carbon emissions.

But a report released on Monday by the international non-profit group Global Energy Monitor found the international LNG boom is undermining global efforts to slow climate change.

Global LNG investments are “on a collision course” with the goals of the Paris climate change accord and Canada is one of the world’s worst offenders, according to the report.

Like the LNG Canada project, Woodfibre LNG will benefit from a host of public subsidies and electricity rates far lower than what residential BC Hydro customers pay.

Woodfibre has also signed an agreement with the Squamish First Nation that could see the nation receiving $225 million in benefits over 40 years.

Last week, Woodfibre announced it had signed an LNG sales and purchase agreement with BP Gas Marketing, with first delivery expected in 2023.

The National Energy Board issued a 40-year export licence for Woodfibre LNG in June 2017, extending the project’s original 25-year licence by 15 years.

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A controversial proposal for a gravel mine at the mouth of a salmon-bearing creek on Howe Sound is a graphic illustration of a broken environmental assessment process — one that relies on science paid for by the proponent, say opponents of the Burnco Aggregate Project on McNab Creek.

“This project is going to impact one of only three estuaries in Howe Sound and it’s critical for salmon spawning habitat, but there is no independent data even on how many salmon are in the creek,” Tracey Saxby, marine scientist and volunteer executive director of the environmental organization My Sea to Sky, told DeSmog Canada.

The company plans to extract up to 1.6 million tonnes of gravel a year for 16 years, which would be shipped from a marine barge loading facility to company operations in Burnaby and Langley.

But Saxby says that since estuaries are vital for wild salmon it makes no sense to consider such a project without independent data, pointing out that residents are also concerned about noise, dust and barges travelling to and from the facility every other day.

Saxby is spearheading a campaign that has bombard Environment Minister George Heyman and Energy and Mines Minister Michelle Mungall with more than 2,600 letters asking them to stop the Burnco gravel mine and to rethink the environmental assessment process.

The group is calling for the government to undertake a review of the environmental assessment process for the gravel mine and for a “robust and fully independent baseline assessment of wild salmon populations in McNab Creek.”

Industry-Funded Science at Heart of Brunco Controversy

The Burnco gravel mine, which has been wending its way through the system for six years, is a clear example of what is wrong with the professional reliance model, Saxby said.

B.C.’s professional reliance system allows private companies and project proponents to hire biologists, engineers, geoscientists and other experts to assess environmental risks, instead of the work being done by government professionals or independent contractors hired by government.

It is a controversial self-regulating model, used extensively by the former BC Liberal government after cuts to the civil service, and has come under increasing scrutiny since the 2014 collapse of the Mount Polley tailings pond and a community battle over government approval of a contaminated soil facility above Shawnigan Lake.

Last month, Heyman ordered a review of the province’s professional reliance system, with a final report expected next spring.

Green Party MLA Sonia Furstenau, who was at the centre of the Shawnigan Lake contaminated soil battle, has received 2,300 emails on the Burnco application in less than 24 hours.

That reaction to the proposal is an example of how professional reliance has undermined public trust, Furstenau said in an interview.

“This [gravel mine] is such a clearcut example,” she said.

A controversial gravel mine at the mouth of a #salmon-bearing creek in #HoweSound is an illustration of a broken environmental assessment process — one that relies on science paid for by the proponent, says @MySea2Sky https://t.co/gwHY0LZ91h #bcpoli @SoniaFurstenau

— DeSmog Canada (@DeSmogCanada) November 28, 2017

Review of B.C.’s Environmental Assessment Process Needed: Green Party MLA

“The review [of professional reliance] is necessary because, when people do not trust the government's process, it creates economic uncertainty and the impacts on the community are huge and sometimes devastating,” Furstenau told DeSmog Canada.

When the review recommendations are submitted, government must take them extremely seriously in an effort to address the profound lack of public trust, Furstenau said.

Saxby pointed out that the only information on salmon in McNab Creek came from a citizen scientist and, because of that, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans previously refused permits for a gravel mine.

“This is just one example of what happens and you have to question all the other decisions made by the Environmental Assessment Office,” Saxby said. “There’s a real lack of trust in the integrity of the process.”

“Public engagement is nothing more than a checkbox on a form and the process relies on science that is bought and paid for by the proponent,” she said. “It’s a clear conflict of interest.”

“There is no point engaging in this broken process so we decided to bypass the process and email the ministers directly…We need the province to press pause until it restores public trust in the process.”

A 30-day public comment period on the Burnco application ended this week and the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency will release a report next month, followed by another public comment period.

Illustration: Carol Linnitt

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If you were busy enjoying the holiday season with your family, you might have missed a request for public opinion made by the federal government on December 17, 2013.  

The Government of Canada was seeking comments from the public on the proposed Woodfibre Natural Gas Ltd. export terminal that, if approved, will operate for 25 years in Howe Sound, producing between 1.5 and 2.1 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) annually.

The public comment period closed Monday, January 6, 2014.

In addition to comments on the potential environmental effects of the project, the federal government was also seeking the public’s opinion on B.C.’s request to perform a provincial environmental assessment of the project, instead of a federal review done under the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act (CEAA) 2012.

B.C. and the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency have a memorandum of understanding that allows the province to oversee environmental assessments and First Nations consultation under certain CEAA 2012 provisions.

The project includes the construction of a liquefied natural gas facility seven kilometres southwest of Squamish on the northwestern shoreline of Howe Sound, according to a Government of Canada press release. Both a liquefaction plant and a LNG export facility would be built to ship B.C. gas to global markets.

As Mark Hume writes for the Globe and Mail, B.C. Premier Christy Clark’s rush to develop the province’s natural gas resources while scaling up the production and export of LNG could raise opposition with local communities feeling hoodwinked by inadequate public consultation and environmental review.

In the case of this proposed facility, the public comment period overlapped with Christmas, Boxing Day and New Year's Day, leaving a paltry 10 days for individuals to research and formally submit their concerns — if they were even aware of the proposal.

Vel Anderson, member of the Elphinstone Electors Association in Gisbons B.C., told the Globe and Mail her community did not have time to respond to the project proposal.

“It’s frightening what has happened,” she said. “Here on this coast we received no information…There’s been nothing in our two local daily newspapers.There’s been nothing about the facility that’s going to go in at Woodfibre and yet we will be directly affected throughout this whole process.”

Anderson believes citizens along the proposed LNG tanker route have been dealt a similar hand.

If approved, the project could bring 40 LNG tankers through Howe Sound each year. Woodfibre LNG states on its website that the particular site in Squamish was chosen for its “existing infrastructure and a welcome regulatory regime.”

The welcome might be too warm for some regional locals, however. Feeling rushed, Anderson requested the federal government extend the public comment period.

“Thousands of people around the coastal area of Howe Sound will be directly affected and deserved to be informed,” she wrote.

She told the Globe and Mail, “having this public comment period slated for over the holiday season, one wonders what’s going on.”

“It doesn’t look like we’re really invited to comment.”

The LNG facilities, Hume wrote, would be constructed on a former industrial pulp mill site and surrounding gas infrastructure would connect with existing pipelines, creating little new disturbance.

“So the project,” he continues, “on many fronts, looks like it could easily win support. Instead, the government has created a sense of unease by appearing to rush the process of public consultation.”

B.C. already boasts itself as a “future leader in natural gas supply and export” and promises major growth of an LNG industry providing thousands of new jobs for British Columbians. Christy Clark’s vision of B.C. has yet to come to fruition with no LNG export facilities currently under construction.

Perhaps the rush is merely to return the horse to the front of the cart?

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