Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff
A Smithers-based researcher says running a pipeline through west-central B.C. is too risky because the region is so prone to landslides.
"The unstable mountainous terrain across west-central B.C. is not a safe location for pipelines," said geomorphologist Jim Schwab. "Eventually a landslide will sever a pipeline. An alternative safer route needs to be evaluated."
Schwab, who completed a 33-page report on the issue, examined three regions: the Nechako Plateau, the Hazelton Mountains and the Kitimat Ranges.
He found that the landslide risk is minor in the plateau country, but the mountainous regions have a history of landslides, including three documented large landslides within the Hazelton Range that severed a natural gas pipeline since its construction in the early 1970s.
Most unstable, Schwab says, are the Kitimat Ranges, where steep, narrow valleys have experienced landslides powerful enough to rupture pipelines during extreme rainstorms in 1978 and 1992.
At least two pipelines are planned for the region.
Work is slated to begin next year on the $1.1-billion Pacific Trails Pipeline, which would link into existing natural gas pipeline infrastructure at Summit Lake, just north of Prince George and stretching 463 kilometres to a liquified natural gas plant in Kitimat.
And pending approval from a federal joint review panel Enbridge's $5.5-billion North Gateway pipeline would transport bitumen 1,177 kilometres from the Alberta oil sands to Kitimat for shipment by tanker to Asia.
Enbridge communications manager Paul Stanway said the company has done extensive geotechnical surveys of the proposed pipeline route and is confident it can be built and operated safely.
"In recent years some of the most striking advances in pipeline technology have been associated with route planning, enabling projects to avoid areas where there may be geotechnical issues," Stanway said.
"In fact the route was revised at specific locations specifically to avoid or limit exposure to geotechnical issues such as unstable slopes, rock falls and avalanches."
Schwab's study was funded by the Bulkley Valley Research Centre, a Smithers-based non-profit organization that focusses on natural resource
issues.
