RE: Power line review clock ticking againTHE PROVINCIAL Environmental Assessment Office has resumed its review of the much-anticipated Northwest Transmission Line, regarded by many as the needed catalyst leading toward the development of jobs-producing mines and power projects north of here.
The review, which was started in the spring and which was to take 180 days, was stopped Sept. 2 so that further studies and information could be collected.
The transmission line is to be 287kV in size and run from BC Hydro’s Skeena Substation near Terrace to Bob Quinn on Hwy 37 North, a distance of just over 340 kilometres.
Late last week a senior assessment office official said it and a working group of government officials, First Nations groups and others are now satisfied that the information requested has been provided.
What originally had been an expected conclusion date of the Thanksgiving weekend for the environmental review is now the end of November, says Kathy Eichenberger.
“We’re now working toward the timeline,” she said.
Once concluded, the review and recommendations are sent to the environment and energy ministers for a decision on whether construction of the line should start or not.
There’s no set time period in which the two ministers must make a decision.
Earlier this year, based on a quick approval had the review been finished at Thanksgiving, BC Hydro officials had been saying work on the line could start this year.
One of the outcomes of the review stoppage was the decision to divert the line away from an environmentally sensitive area around Meziadin to one in which there is already a level of industrial activity.
Eichenberger was confident the review would be finished by the new end of November date.
“But you never know what might happen,” she said.
Eichenberger did add that people in the assessment office are generally surprised by the large amount of support for the power line and lack of opposition.
“We know, really, how the public sees the line and how important of a project it is to them,” she said.
Already signed up to be a customer of the line is Calgary-based AltaGas which is building a run of river hydro electric project called Forrest Kerr using water from the Iskut River.
It needs to construct its own power line from its Forrest Kerr powerhouse to connect with the end of the Northwest Transmission Line at Bob Quinn.
From there, the Forrest Kerr power will flow into the BC Hydro grid under a 60-year sales deal struck with the crown corporation just this year. AltaGas is paying $180 million of the planned $404 million cost of the Northwest Transmission Line.
Another early customer is expected to be Imperial Metals which has the copper-gold Red Chris property just south and to the east of Iskut.
It already has environmental clearance but must first build a line from the Red Chris property to Hwy37 North and then south to Bob Quinn.
Imperial and BC Hydro have yet to announce a power purchase agreement.
Also high on the early customer list is NovaGold and Teck Cominco, joint owners of the Galore Creek copper and gold property.
Construction started in 2007 but was closed down the same year after costs outstripped the development budget.
A renewed economic feasibility study is expected next spring.
NovaGold and Teck must also build a power line to connect to the end of the Northwest Transmission Line at Bob Quinn.