While Woodfibre LNG Limited appreciates the opinions shared in “Woodfibre LNG’s ad is misleading,” (letter to the editor, August 13), it’s very important to separate opinion from fact.
The fact is that Howe Sound and the Woodfibre LNG site are well suited for a liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility. The Woodfibre site is seven kilometres from downtown Squamish, has a deepwater port, and is located on a well established shipping lane to international waters that experienced mariners have been using for 100 years. Howe Sound is not considered a narrow waterway under national or international guidelines and is not home to “high density populations,” which is defined by the U.S. Coast Guard as areas with 9,000 persons per square mile or more (Guidance Related to Waterfront LNG Facilities, 2009).
Our proposed project would increase large vessel traffic in Howe Sound by less than one per cent, which is very manageable for recreational boaters, and BC Ferries has gone on record to say the proposed Woodfibre LNG project would not have a major impact on its schedule.
The letter writer’s opinion that U.S. regulations would prohibit an LNG terminal at a site such as Woodfibre is not supported by fact. The fact is that Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) conducted a series of large-scale LNG fire tests in highly controlled settings with no mitigation measures in place. While the Sandia reports provide very important information, the results of the studies are not prescriptive – that is, you can’t take the hazard zones described in the Sandia reports, plot them on a map and suggest that an LNG project wouldn’t be allowed to go ahead if people lived and or worked in any of those zones. Rather, the results of the Sandia reports help inform the quantitative risk assessments that are done by LNG proponents so that they can reduce or eliminate any hazards and risks to the public and infrastructure associated with their specific Projects.
As for Woodfibre LNG, just visit our website, where you can read about the work that has already been done to ensure our project is safe, including a third-party independent review by one of the world’s most respected risk assessment companies. And we’re not done yet. We’ve also committed to implementing the recommendations of another review – this time by Transport Canada (TERMPOL) – to ensure safe operations in Howe Sound.
Interested in getting the facts about Woodfibre LNG? Please visit the Community Office in Squamish, contact us at woodfibrelng.ca or visit our Q&A website, askwoodfibrelng.ca.
John French
Community Relations Manager
Woodfibre LNG Ltd.
