Members of a Burnaby canoeing club are worried the proposed Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion could impact their recreational time on the water.
The Lotus Sports Club is concerned about how the expansion would trigger an increase in tanker traffic from five vessels per month to 34.
“With all of the tankers in there, it’s going to change the way recreational paddlers can use that area, let’s put it that way,” said the club’s Bill Chambers.
The club has close to 100 members of all ages who regularly paddle by the west end of Barnet Marine Park, just adjacent to the Kinder Morgan terminal.
The club is hosting its annual outrigger race on Saturday, with paddlers from all over the Pacific Northwest launching their boats from a stretch of shore just a stone’s throw from the terminal.
The pipeline proposal includes provisions to replace the current dock with two new berths that could accommodate three tankers filling up with crude.
“If the Kinder Morgan expansion goes through the way it is and they put that huge big pier out, the race course we’ve been using will not be doable,” Chambers said, adding an oil spill would blow back onto Barnet Marine Park,
“It is certainly a concern of ours,” Chambers added.
The club is one of hundreds of participants in the National Energy Board’s hearing for the pipeline expansion.
According to Kinder Morgan spokesperson Ali Hounsell, the company has reached out to the club to no avail.
"We became aware of the Lotus Sports Club through the regulatory process. In addition to answering their questions through the (information request) process, we reached out to them on multiple occasions to offer a meeting so that we could better understand their concerns and gather their input as early in the process as possible,” she said in a statement email to the NOW. “They have yet to accept that offer, but we will reach out once again and hope to have the chance to speak with them directly to learn more about their club and share information about the proposed project."
