Naturalist Club fights plan to route Trans Mountain expansion through Lac du Bois

NEWS/ ENVIRONMENT — The Kamloops Naturalist Club is raising the alarm about a proposal to re-route Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline through Lac du Bois grasslands.

At the same time, the club is urging the provincial government to clarify changes to the Parks Act that critics say raises the spectre of industrial activity in provincial parks via “research” activity.

KNC president Jean Crowe told The Armchair Mayor News on Thursday that Lac du Bois is “not a viable route in our opinion” for Kinder Morgan’s $4.1 billion pipeline expansion project. The pipeline transports oil from Edmonton to Burnaby and runs through Kamloops.

In a letter to Kinder Morgan’s external relations manager Lexa Hobenshield, the naturalists object to using the grasslands as an alternative to the existing route through Westsyde, and point out the official protected status of the grasslands.

The letter expresses disappointment that an April 2 workshop made no mention of the importance of the protected area.

“It was especially disheartening to hear you talk as if the proposed pipeline route through Lac du Bois Grasslands Protected Area is the best and only viable route.”

It says the proposed route for the pipeline expansion is only metres from the McQueen Creek ecological reserve.

“We request a detailed explanation of the cost savings you anticipate if you are able to use the Lac du Bois route,” says the letter.

“We fear it is all too easy for your staff and engineers to see this area as an empty space available for your convenience and construction activities.”

Grasslands cover less than one per cent of the province’s land area and current estimates are that more than 20 per cent of the historical range of grasslands in B.C. has been lost, the letter says.

“We do not want to see the values of this important grassland area whittled away when alternative routes for a pipeline exist.

Kinder Morgan raised the possibility of routing the pipeline through Lac du Bois last October as an answer to concerns about tearing up streets and private properties in Westsyde — which grew up around the pipeline after it was built in 1953 — to twin the pipe.

The City had just asked the provincial government to expand Lac du Bois Park.

Project director Greg Toth said at the time meticulous remediation would be paramount but B.C. Parks has described Lac du Bois as a “fragile area.”

In a second letter, this one to Environment Minister Mary Polak, the naturalists club expresses “serious concerns” about the vagueness of amendments to the provincial park-use permitting process, especially with respect to resource extraction.

“It must be made clear that there will be no issuance of permits to undertake inventories of natural resources for purposes of exploitation or harvest,” the letter to Polak states.

“Parks are not places for such activities….”

Controversy arose in March over Bill 4, which amends the Parks Act to allow industrial “research” in parks.

West Coast Environmental Law says Kinder Morgan has obtained park use permits to research routes through five parks and protected areas, including Lac du Bois and North Thompson River Park.

It says those permits were granted last November, but the amendment to the Parks Act that validates them wasn’t passed until March 24.

The NDP tried to stall the bill, saying more consultation was needed, but failed.

Prior to the amendments, research in a park had to be related to preservation or maintenance of the recreational values of the park.

EDITOR’S NOTE — The full text of the Kamloops Naturalist Club letter to Kinder Morgan is published below.