TransCanada isn't the only pipeline company considering a route through the Nisga'a Lava Bed Memorial Park as one way of getting natural gas from northeastern B.C. to a planned liquefied natural gas plant near Prince Rupert.
But Spectra Energy, which would build a 48-inch pipeline called the Westcoast Connector for the planned Prince Rupert LNG project owned by the BG Group, would mostly skirt the southern edge of the Class A park and go through the park for 1,200 metres beginning at a narrow point near the Highway 113 entry to the park, says company lands and environment manager Ken Berry.
And unlike the TransCanada plan which calls for digging a trench, placing in the pipe and then burying it, Spectra Energy would use horizontal drilling technology, leaving the surface undisturbed.
Spectra construction manager Drum Cavers, speaking at an information open house June 4, said the Nisga'a Lisims Government has expressed a desire that a route along Highway 113 leading westward be considered, but that the company prefers the southern route.
"Right now what we have filed we come across the narrowest portion," said Cavers.
Spectra's right-of-way would then parallel the highway along with the TransCanada pipeline through the park.