Site work has begun on a controversial jet fuel pipeline project in Richmond that will result in airport-bound fuel trucks eliminated from Delta roads.
The Vancouver Airport Fuel Facilities Corporation received a permit from Port Metro Vancouver this spring for the construction and operation of the fuel project. Owned by a consortium of airlines that use YVR, the corporation plans to ship jet fuel by barge up the Fraser River to fuel receiving facility, where it will then be piped to a tank farm on port-owned land on the south arm of the river. An underground pipeline will then send the fuel from the tanks to the airport.
Project director Adrian Pollard told the Optimist the tank farm site is "heavily disturbed land" that has unstable soil to build such structures right now, so a lot of effort is being put into replacing it with more suitable fill, including sand and gravel. Once that work is completed, and done to seismic standards, construction on six storage tanks will likely begin early next year. The total project is slated for completion in early 2019.
Aviation fuel is currently delivered to YVR from Burnaby through a pipeline owned by Trans Mountain (Jet Fuel) Inc. and by tanker trucks from fuel suppliers in Washington state. The current pipeline meets approximately 80 per cent of fuel demand the airport. The remainder is delivered by tanker trucks that travel through Delta.
Current growth in fuel demand is being met by increasing those tanker truck deliveries, according to a Delta staff analysis from a couple of years ago.
Pollard said the figure is now about 50 trucks per day travelling from the refinery to YVR, which works out to about an extra 100 truck movements through Delta daily.
"They have to come across over Highway 91 and over the Alex Fraser (Bridge) because the transportation of dangerous goods precludes them from going through the tunnel," he explained.
"You see them routinely tied up on congested streets in Richmond, you see them on the highways. A few years ago there was a rollover in South Surrey but nothing spilled, fortunately. Every single one of those will disappear, replacing all capacity by barge."
Pollard said sending fuel by truck can always be a contingency in case of emergencies, but it will no longer be a regular method of shipment once the project is up and running.
The residents' group Vancouver Airport Project Opposition for Richmond (VAPOR) had been fighting the project while the City of Richmond also voiced objection.
In December 2013, the province announced a conditional environmental assessment certificate would be issued. That decision was made after a B.C. Environmental Assessment Office review.
