A Metro Vancouver official has confirmed that the air permit application for a contentious South Surrey biofuel plant has been ‘paused.’
Kathy Preston, director of environmental regulation and enforcement – tasked with reviewing permits related to air emissions from businesses and industries in the region – made the statement to Peace Arch News Monday (March 25).
“The review, which was previously in the public notification phase, was paused following a request to the applicant for additional technical information, which has not yet been received,” she said.
“A decision has not been made on the permit application.”
In February, Natural Resources Canada withdrew $14.4 million in federal funding from the potential garbage-to-renewable natural gas facility, originally known as the Semiahmoo Andion Renewable Natural Gas (RNG) project.
READ MORE: Federal funding for proposed South Surrey biofuel project withdrawn
The plant is a partnership between the Semiahmoo First Nation and Andion’s North American division, which was reorganized and rebranded in December as Taurus RNG.
A statement from South Surrey-White Rock MP Kerry-Lynne Findlay earlier this month did not rule out an ability for the company to re-apply for the federal funds.
Similarly, the current status of the application before Metro Vancouver is ‘paused’ only.
“The status of the air permit application review process will be updated on Metro Vancouver’s Permit Applications in Progress webpage when the review process resumes,” Preston said.
Meanwhile on Sunday, well-known project foes Clean Air Alliance Canada held an information meeting that drew some 150 attendees to the Star of the Sea Hall in White Rock.
READ ALSO: White Rock meeting held by biofuel plant foes
Among those presenting were Alliance co-founder and president Robert J. Pierson and well-known local environmentalist and naturalist David Hancock; those attending included Surrey Couns. Gordon Hepner and Linda Annis, White Rock Coun. Ernie Klassen and Surrey-White Rock MLA Trevor Halford.
Presenters, using many impact-assessment reports provided for the project, and more than 800 pages of materials accessed through Freedom of Information requests, painted a picture of supportive data either from old or unknown sources, with many redactions, and employing formulas that – the Alliance suggests – may not be valid for the proposed location on SFN land.
“We still don’t know what any of this really means,” Pierson said in a media release last week, which summarized many of his organization’s concerns.
“But we’re cautiously optimistic that both the (federal) government and Metro Vancouver are finally coming to their senses,” he said.
“Why anyone could have thought that a project of this size being built by an unknown company in North America, so close to residential areas and ecologically sensitive areas, was a good idea, is beyond us.”
He repeated previous Alliance allegations that the project, and the company behind it, is reliant on a controversial record of experience in Europe and elsewhere – and that governmental agencies involved should have used better judgment before the proposal was made public.
“Why risk driving a wedge between Semiahmoo First Nation and the local community…?” he asked.
“This project should never have received any public funding or reached this stage at all, and a basic level of due diligence before public support was announced would have nipped it in the bud as unnecessary, uneconomical, and unsuitable for this location.”
For more information on Clean Air Alliance Canada, visit thecleanairalliance.org