A proposal to export thermal coal from the United States to offshore markets includes a Texada Island shipping link.
Fraser Surrey Docks (FSD) has applied to Port Metro Vancouver for a project permit to build coal-handling facilities within its existing terminal operations. The facilities would allow for the direct transfer of coal from trains to barges on a conveyor system.
The barges would carry coal to Texada Quarrying Ltd. (TQL), owned by Lafarge Canada Ltd., through the Sabine Channel, located between Texada and Lasqueti islands. Barges would be towed in tandem to Texada, where the coal would be stored before transfer to deep-sea vessels for export to Asia.
FSD forecasts it would handle two million metric tonnes in 2013, increasing to four million in 2014. The coal would be delivered to Texada by two barges carrying 8,000 tonnes every two days in 2013, increasing to two barges a day in 2014.
According to FSD, the unloading and loading of coal on Texada would directly employ about 25 people.
The coal would come from Wyoming’s Powder River Basin, delivered to FSD on the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railway, owned by Warren Buffet, an American business magnate, investor and philanthropist.
TQL has an existing deepwater port and infrastructure to transfer the coal onto deepwater vessels. The facility is already used by Hillsborough Resources Limited for its Quinsam mine operations near Campbell River on Vancouver Island.
A TQL representative was not available for comment before the Peak’s deadline.
Powell River Regional District Director Dave Murphy, who represents Texada, said he was aware of the proposal. “It’s business as usual,” he said. “The numbers are larger, but it doesn’t change anything at TQL, except they’ll be hiring more people.”
Coal isn’t a “bad omen” that people think it is, Murphy said. “There’s really no dust,” he said. “It’s wet material. They have ways to keep it good. Then it’s just unloaded from barges. How different is that from limestone?”
Currently, about five to 10 million tonnes of limestone are shipped from Texada, Murphy added. “I see no difference with this,” he said. “I think people on Texada would be fairly pleased. It means more jobs and it’s something we’ve been doing for decades.”
The concerns about the impact of burning coal on the environment have nothing to do with Texada, Murphy also said. “To Texada, it’s just another rock mineral that’s being shipped,” he said. “[The climate change concerns] should be addressed to China, not to Texada.”
Some of North America’s leading climate change scientists and researchers have signed an open letter, released on November 28, calling on Port Metro Vancouver to delay making any decisions on FSD’s application, as well as another application by Neptune Terminals in North Vancouver to expand its terminal for metallurgical coal exports.
Signatories to the letter include climate action group 350.org founder Bill McKibben, Andrew Weaver and Mark Jaccard, both members of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and a broad alliance of health, environmental, clean-energy, faith and community groups.
Kevin Washbrook, director of Voters Taking Action on Climate Change, told the Peak the first concern is burning coal, because it’s bad for the planet, but also there is a concern about the impacts of coal dust.
“Coal dust has impacts on human health, marine life, including salmon, and it damages farmland,” Washbrook said. “It contains arsenic, lead, mercury, chromium, nickel, selenium and other toxic heavy metals. What sort of impacts is it going to have on the environment on the way up? When it’s unloaded from the barge, it’s put into a pile, it’s put onto a ship. This stuff just gives off dust the whole time, so good luck with wetting it down.”
While some jobs will be created as a result of the proposal, Washbrook said, the application is not unlike the Northern Gateway pipeline. “We are exposed to all these risks from the dust and from climate change, but we don’t get many of the benefits,” he said. “There aren’t many jobs there and we’re all breathing this stuff in and we’re all being impacted by climate change.”
Washbrook said he didn’t think the proposal was a fair deal for BC. “It’s American coal, shipped by Warren Buffet, who’s a billionaire,” he said. “They’re making a ton of money off this and they’re running it right through our communities and off our coast.”
