Noise limit could kill Mackenzie pipeline, Imperial says
Jeffrey Jones, National Post
Reuters
January 29, 2010
A panel's recommendation to enforce strict noise limits at a bird
sanctuary has the potential to shut down development of the $16.2-billion
Mackenzie pipeline in Canada's Arctic, the project's backers said.
The contention is among several by Imperial Oil Ltd
and its Mackenzie partners in written responses to proposals made by the
Joint Review Panel, which assessed the massive project's environmental and
socioeconomic impacts in a report issued at the end of last year.
Canada's National Energy Board will use the report, and responses to it,
in deciding whether to approve the Mackenzie project, which has been
plagued with delays and rising costs. It has planned final arguments for
April.
The JRP said the proponents should be required to design any facilities
within the Kendall Island Bird Sanctuary, located on the northern end of
the Mackenzie Delta in the Northwest Territories, to keep noise levels
below 50 decibels at 300 metres from the fence line.
Imperial said such a measure has so far proved impossible, and is not
needed to protect birds in the sanctuary from adverse effects. Enforcing
it it could prevent development of two of the natural gas fields that will
feed to pipeline.
"To make this a condition for any approvals for facilities in the Kendall
Island Bird Sanctuary would have the potential effect of preventing
development of the Taglu and Niglintgak anchor fields, and therefore, the
entire Mackenzie gas project," Imperial said.
In two letters of response, the company urged regulators to reject several
of the JRP's recommendations.
The panel gave its support to the line, which would run 1,220 kilometres
through the territory, saying it would bring benefits to Canada's North if
176 recommendations are followed.
They include a diverse range of measures covering such things as analysis
of the impact of climate change on facilities buried in permafrost,
monitoring grizzly bear dens and assessing if alcohol and drug abuse
programs in the sparsely populated region are adequate.
Fewer than half are aimed at the pipeline's backers. The rest target the
federal and territorial governments as well as other regulators.
"Our responses were directed at measures that we believed would have the
net effect of increasing regulatory complexity or might affect regulatory
timing, etcetera," Imperial spokesman Pius Rolheiser said.
"Then we had a number of comments on specific recommendations pertaining
to specific aspects of the project, including the one dealing with noise
levels in the Kendall Island Bird Sanctuary."
The Joint Review Panel urged the NEB to refrain from granting approvals
for future applications for projects or activities until some actions are
completed. This should be rejected, Imperial said, arguing that such
applications should be dealt with on a case-by-case basis.
Another recommendation, that proponents complete certain tasks prior to
any construction, would be unwieldy because work takes place at different
locations over four years.
"It is not practical to expect that all plans, manuals and specifications
for all construction activities at all locations will be made available
before the first right-of-way or site preparation activity begins," the
company wrote.
Imperial said many JRP recommendations are "far-reaching and apply to
activities that are not associated with the Mackenzie Gas Project."
It did not address them directly, but said the governments should avoid
adopting any that have the potential to discourage development in Canada's
North.
Imperial's partners in the project are Royal Dutch Shell PLC,
ConocoPhillips, Exxon Mobil Corp and Aboriginal Pipeline Group.
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