A Burnaby group’s lawyer for the Kinder Morgan pipeline hearing says the company’s latest claim to the NEB is absurd.
Kinder Morgan filed its final argument Feb. 17, signalling the close of the Trans Mountain pipeline hearing. Kinder Morgan complained that some intervenors (like the City of Vancouver) used their speaking time to introduce new evidence in the final oral arguments, and that Burnaby Residents Opposing Kinder Morgan Expansion used their time to simply repeat their evidence as argument when they should have been expressing their thoughts and opinions on the pipeline.
BROKE’s lawyer Neil Chantler said this was absurd, and that the NEB simply stated intervenors can’t introduce new evidence.
“Citing evidence in final argument is not only proper, it’s the only proper thing to do. Trans Mountain’s reply argument is absurd,” Chantler said. “They have misinterpreted the board’s instructions to intervenors regarding final arguments.”
“I have to think they are doing this as a cheap shot because we touched a nerve,” he added. “It’s such an absurd thing to say; I can’t imagine a lawyer drafted this.”
The company filed its final reply in response to intervenors’ closing arguments on Wednesday, signalling the close of the hearing after more than two years.
The NEB’s three-person panel reviewing the project has until May 20 to make a recommendation to federal cabinet, which has the final say on whether a twin pipeline will be built from Alberta to Burnaby.
The federal government recently extended its own deadline to deliberate on the project until this December. The move was made to allow more time for consultation with First Nations and an upstream greenhouse gas emission review. Kinder Morgan hopes to have the line up and running by December, 2019.
Pipeline benefits
In Kinder Morgan’s final response filed Wednesday, Kinder Morgan argued the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion is in the public interest and “critical to the future of this country and all Canadians.”
Kinder Morgan pointed out that Canadian oil sells at a discounted price, but if the pipeline is built, shippers will be able to access wider markets and sell the oil for more money.
Earthquake concerns
Burnaby Residents Opposing Kinder Morgan Expansion chose to focus on earthquake concerns for their portion of the final oral arguments in the hearing, and in response, Kinder Morgan said it has accounted for seismic activity and that there are no known detrimental underlying geological features around the Burnaby terminal, which includes the tank farm and Westridge, and Burnaby Mountain, where the new pipeline route will go if approved.
Kinder Morgan also stated it would have engineers conduct seismic investigations along the new route in areas that have potential for landslides or liquefaction.
Fire Safety
Kinder Morgan also refuted the local fire department’s concerns about a “boilover event” at the Burnaby Mountain tank farm. Deputy fire chief Chris Bowcock has raised concerns that if one of the massive tanks at the storage facility caught fire, it could explode, igniting other nearby tanks, leading to a full-scale disaster.
Kinder Morgan replied that the likelihood of that happening was “extremely low” and the distance between the tanks is greater than the National Fire Protection Association’s requirements. The company also argued that boilover events take hours to build up and that would give emergency responders time to intervene.
Mayor fires off yet another letter to prime minister
Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan has written a third letter to Justin Trudeau, imploring the prime minister to hurry up and change the National Energy Board process and suspend the review for the Kinder Morgan pipeline.
In the Feb. 17 letter, Corrigan cites Trudeau’s promises to overhaul the NEB, and he expresses the city’s “significant disappointment.”
“Not only did your government not revise the board in all of the ways promised, it didn’t revise it all,” he wrote.
Corrigan said if there must be a pipeline, a high-population municipality should be the last place for a location. The letter was also sent to all of the region’s mayors.
