Officials to keep eye on KIB’s plans

While doing my daily reading up on ACC today, I came across an article in The Daily News from March 7, 2008 that reminded me of former councillor Arjun Singh’s history with this issue.

He and I have a different views on this proposal, but the article below shows he’s not only been pretty consistent, but that even back then he identified the two key questions on ACC’s gasification project: science, and consultation. For that, I think he deserves some credit. Here’s the article, which appeared under the same headline as this post:

Any proposal to incinerate railway ties on the Kamloops Indian Band reserve will receive strict oversight from the B.C. Ministry of Environment.

Rick Adams, regional manager for the ministry in Kamloops, said he spoke with promoters of a preliminary plan to gasify 200,000 ties a year on the Kamloops Indian Band reserve. The ministry has received no paperwork from Aboriginal Cogeneration, however.

“We’ve had some preliminary discussions,” Adams said, noting the project was originally proposed for Ashcroft.

He suggested the former Lytton Lumber site in the Fraser Canyon community as well as Louis Creek’s industrial park in the North Thompson to the company.

“Those may be other suitable locations beyond what he’s pursuing,” Adams said of CEO Kim Sigurdson.

While the proposal is for Indian reserve land, the ministry has responsibility for regulating emissions in the airshed. Western Industrial Clay, located on the KIB reserve, is under a B.C. Environment Ministry permit.

Kamloops Coun. Arjun Singh said the city was consulted over a test facility on the reserve that houses experiments on low-level radiation. Council’s representative on the environmental committee said he’s keeping an open mind about gasifying railway ties laced with creosote.

“There’s two things: One is the science and is it sound? The other is public participation and impact. If the science is sound you hope you can work with people to assuage concerns or issues.”

Adams said any permit application will involve scientific review by the ministry as well as a public consultation process.

Incineration of railway ties is allowed as a percentage of pulp mill feed stock in Prince George. In Williams Lake the Epcor Power L.P. mill is permitted to use railway ties as slightly less than one per cent of its feedstock.

“I’ve a message to him (Aboriginal Cogeneration president Kim Sigurdson) for these type of proposals; there’s very stringent standards for pollution control,” Adams said.

 “We need to see their literature and research, where it’s been done in other jurisdictions, pollution equipment and outcomes.”