Coquitlam wants FortisBC to build a Coquitlam Crunch extension before the company moves ahead with upgrades to its Eagle Mountain compressor station.
City manager Peter Steblin said Monday the utility provider has been slow to iron out details on what it intends to provide the host community in terms of an amenity contribution. While he acknowledged the company is under no legal obligation, he reminded FortisBC representatives at a committee meeting Monday of its commitment to provide the trail when the compressor station project was first proposed two years ago.
"Is it at all possible to reach some kind of an arrangement on the community amenity benefits — the Coquitlam Crunch extension — before the project conditions are all started?" Steblin asked.
He later added: "From our perspective, it seems like there is always a delay, delay, kick the can down the road and never deal with it."
A commitment "earlier rather than later" on the community amenity would help avoid the issues that arose over the Como Lake Avenue pipeline project last year, he told councillors.
In that instance, FortisBC refused to remove a 20-inch pipe after installing a new 30-inch line, instead filling the old pipe with concrete and leaving it in place. The city also said the company should repave the road from curb to curb, not just the area that was dug up.
In that dispute, the city is appealing a decision by the B.C. Utilities Commission in FortisBC's favour. Steblin told The Tri-City News Monday that if the outcome of that appeal isn't favourable to the city, it will pursue the matter in court.
During Monday's committee meeting, Gord Schoberg, FortisBC's manager of municipal and community relations, said a resolution could be worked out over the community amenity contribution. He said the scope of the city's request had changed and the company is trying to determine whether the project is feasible given the restraints of working under a BC Hydro right-of-way.
"Can it actually be constructed?" he asked. "The first step is to determine that… We would like to reach an agreement and finalize that as that becomes clearer. I would like to think that can happen fairly quickly."
Upgrades to the compressor station are part of the Eagle Mountain-Woodfibre Gas Pipeline Project, a 47-km pipeline that would provide natural gas to the Woodfibre LNG site in Squamish.
An earlier iteration of the project has already been approved but recent changes to the routing and the number of compressors will require an amendment to the company's existing Environmental Assessment Certificate.
According to Trevor Wales, a FortisBC corporate communications advisor, the company intends to increase the size of the two electric-powered compressors at the Eagle Mountain station from the current 20,500 horsepower units to 26,000 horsepower. FortisBC will also be building an additional 3-km pipeline near the compressor station, which the company says is necessary to improve reliability of natural gas supply to Woodfibre LNG.\
A public information session is expected to be scheduled in Coquitlam later this year.
"We are in the early stages of engaging on these potential project changes and there will be further opportunities for the public to participate within this process," Wales said in an email.
