Yukon pipeline argument springing holes
Richard Gleeson
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (Mar 12/01) - Assertions by the Yukon government that environmental permitting is already in place for an Alaska Highway-Yukon gas pipeline may not be accurate.
"The answer to that question at this point is quite simply we don't know," said Jon Pierce of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency.
The "Certificates of Public Convenience and Necessity," were issued 23 years ago for the specific project then being proposed by Foothills.
The approvals would stand if the new project, "is the Foothills project."
Pierce could not say how much the details of a new project could differ from the original without jeopardizing the existing approvals -- "There are a lot of grey areas," he said.
By the GNWT's calculations, to be economically viable a pipeline following the 1,200 kilometre Alaska Natural Gas Transportation System (ANGTS) route would have to be a larger diameter than the one originally proposed.
Since the Foothills proposal, which evaporated when the company was unable to obtain financing, advancements have been made in pipeline construction technology and materials.
Taking advantage of those advances would require a changes to the old Foothills plan.
Ultimately, said Pierce, a decision on the validity of the certificates will be based on a project description. 0A feasibility study is currently under way.
The move to co-ordinate a process to assess a Mackenzie Valley pipeline took a step ahead March 5.
Regulatory agencies emerged from a meeting in Inuvik and announced they were going to give proponents the option of submitting a 50-100 page 'project information package.'
The package would advance the development of a process for assessing a proposal and give proponents an earlier idea of how long and how costly the assessment process would be.
