Vaughn Palmer: Federal agencies pass the buck on where a marine oil terminal could be built

A tanker loads at the Westridge Marine Terminal, the ocean terminus of the Trans Mountain Pipeline. It's unclear where a new oil terminal in Delta, to be the terminus of the proposed new Albert-to-B.C. pipeline, will be located. Photo by Trans Mountain Corporation /Trans Mountain Corporation

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VICTORIA — There was an awkward moment at the news conference Thursday where federal and port officials announced the latest step toward expanding container-handling at Roberts Bank.

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CEO Peter Xotta of the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority was asked about the recent plan to develop a one-million-barrel-a-day oil terminal at Roberts Bank.

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Could the container port and the oil terminal “coexist” in the already crowded marine neighbourhood of Roberts Bank?

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“Obviously the Roberts Bank Two project is much further along,” replied Xotta, before deferring to the federal major projects office.

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“There’s lots of discussion to be undertaken with respect to the energy project that you’re referring to, and we’ll be working with the major project office on the details around that. We don’t have a lot further to say at this point.”

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Nor does anybody else.

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Thursday’s exercise in duck and cover duplicated what happened last week, when Postmedia reporter Gordon Hoekstra asked the big question about the proposed oil terminal: “Can it be done?”

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“Roberts Bank is already the location of two artificial islands — one is B.C. Ferries’ Tsawwassen terminal, the other is the Roberts Bank Superport that contains the Westshore coal terminal and Deltaport, already Canada’s largest container-handling facility,” as Hoekstra reported in The Vancouver Sun last Friday.

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The Phase 2 expansion of the superport, advanced this week, will add a new 1.3-square-kilometre island.

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The Tsawwassen Ferry terminal extends to the edge of the U.S. border at Point Roberts. North of the coal and container port there’s Westham Island and the mouth of the Fraser River. In between the ferries, the containers and the coal, are the residential neighbourhoods of the Tsawwassen First Nation.

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So, to repeat, where will they squeeze in an oil terminal?

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Hoekstra did not make much progress getting an answer.

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Natural Resources Canada referred him to the port authority.

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The port authority said the federal and Alberta governments had not involved it in discussions on the oil terminal, therefore it knew nothing about the impact on the new container terminal.

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“It’s important to keep in mind that these are two separate projects,” said a port representative. “Alberta’s proposal is still at a conceptual stage and details regarding route and infrastructure have not been provided to us.”

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Nor did Alberta have anything to say for attribution.

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But the province has already posted its expectations for an oil terminal spreading over several square kilometres of land to accommodate 15 oil storage tanks and a two-berth loading facility for very large crude carriers, a.k.a. “supertankers.”

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The container terminal is indeed a lot farther advanced than the oil terminal and no wonder: Environmental review began more than a decade ago.

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Monday the port announced the major contractor for the expanded terminal.