Natural gas pipeline to Vancouver Island scuttled

Gary Park

Five years of work on plans to build a natural gas pipeline to Vancouver Island from the United States have collapsed, with the proponents unable to secure competitive gas supplies.

BC Hydro and U.S.-based Williams Gas Pipelines, joint partners in the Georgia Strait Crossing, said Dec. 20 they had cancelled plans for the C$340 million pipeline.

The Canadian portion of the 16-inch pipeline was designed to carry 96 million cubic feet per day to gas-fired electricity generation plants on Vancouver Island by October 2005.

Gas was also destined for Williams’ customers in northwestern Washington state.

The project had already experienced a rough ride in public hearings, with opponents citing a litany of concerns ranging from the impact on marine life, the dangers of a major earthquake under the southern Strait of Georgia and the project’s economic justification.

An environmental review panel approved the project a year ago, but expressed concern about the pipeline’s environmental effects, safety and reliability, suggesting any failure in the marine section could take months to fix.

In the end, BC Hydro decided that a “large capacity pipeline like GSX is no longer a competitive supply option because the large gas supply requirements it was designed to meet have not materialized,” said Executive Vice President Dawn Farrell.

The alternatives to the Georgia Strait Crossing include plans by Terasen to build a thermal-electric plant near Nanaimo. Terasen had already argued GSX was unnecessary.