Chevron’s Kitimat LNG team was back in Kitimat to give a brief pre-New Years look at their project.
Chevron’s David Molinksi gave the update to councillors at the December 16 meeting.
There was no major announcement from the meeting, which included updates such as the fact the company is about 50 per cent complete on finishing the Forest Service Road (FSR) which leads from Haisla Boulevard to their proposed liquefaction plant for natural gas at Bish Cove.
A lot of their early works is complete, including tree falling and burning. Deep soil mixing is also done, which is a key part of stabilizing the foundation of the site.
Meanwhile they have plans to soon increase the size of their work camp.
The Kitimat LNG project currently has a 135 room camp in place right now.
“Early in the new year we’re expecting to increase it to about 287,” said Molinksi.
Then sometime around the middle of 2014 they’ll grow that further to 600 rooms.
Their camp is approximately in the area of the former Eurocan Pulp and Paper mill.
As for the Eurocan building itself, the company is still working out a plan to demolish the structures.
They do plan to use an existing landfill on the site though. They have remediation work to do, and will have to receive a permit from the province before they can re--open it.
Of course the big question as far as Kitimat LNG goes these days is relating to their plan to dump marine clay into nearby Clio Bay, which is said to improve the ecosystem of the bay’s floor.
Molinski says they still have a ways to go before they start doing any of that work.
That includes creating an execution plan and then receiving a permit from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.
“It’s still some time before we get started on that,” he said. “We still have a lot of work to do to get everything in place.”
Phil Germuth asked what sort of work would be done to protect fish smolts released from the Kitimat Hatchery, which use the shores of Clio Bay on their way to the ocean.
Tim Edgell, a marine biologist working with the company, said they are working on plans to avoid impacting them.
“It’s important that the shallow coastal waters are free of sediments because that’s where the fish would be traveling,” he said.
He added that they are collecting ocean information such as currents to make sure their plans wouldn’t impact them.