The Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (CEAA) is extending the public comment period for the Pacific NorthWest LNG terminal on Lelu Island following concerns raised by the environmental groups.
As outlined in last week's issue of the Northern View, the Tbuck Suzuki Foundation and West Coast Environmental Law sent a letter calling upon the agency to reopen the public comment period due to the Skeena River missing from the map originally submitted by the company due to scaling issues. In response to the letter and "recognizing the potential confusion as a result of this technical issue", the CEAA will further consider additional funding under the Participant Funding Program and extent the public comment period for the project until Sept. 20, 2013.
"The Agency strives to ensure that the information provided on its website is accurate and corrected the information as soon as the new map was provided," said CEAA spokesperson Karen Fish.
"The Agency makes every effort to review and ensure quality control on the material provided by proponents. The Agency appreciates comments and counts on feedback from stakeholders as part of its goal to continuously improve."
For its part, NorthWest LNG said it had no problem with the extension.
"Pacific NorthWest LNG welcomes any opportunity for public comment on the project – in fact we have been in the community for over a year actively seeking out comment from the public on the project. We take those comments back to our engineering team to look for mitigations," said Spencer Sproule, senior advisor of corporate affairs.
"We hope to be in the Port Edward/Prince Rupert area for decades – so we want our project to incorporate feedback from the residents in northwest B.C."