13 January 2010

Gasification Plant's Location Questionable

Kamloops British Columbia - Editor:
 
Hey, ho, here we go again in Alice-in-Wonderland Kamloops.
 
A Winnipeg company wishes to build and operate a pioneering gasification plant, close to the centre of the city, that would totally consume creosote-laden railway ties.
 
The selected site for this operation is on land that once hosted the Weyerhaeuser sawmill and adjacent to the current Domtar pulp mill.
 
It has a rail spur that can be reactivated and is connected to the Canadian Pacific Railway.
 
The new company is called Aboriginal Co-generation Corporation and it is believed there is no contractual relationship or interest between it and Domtar.
 
The ACC could select any place in Canada to build its pioneer plant, providing there was an adjacent CPR spur to deliver its raw material, spent ties, so why select inner-city Kamloops?
 
A steepish sloped valley with winter air inversions seems an illogical choice of site to discharge more hot gases into the atmosphere.
 
Provocatively, one could suggest this plant should be located on the city outskirts of Winnipeg so the ACC's technical staff are close at hand to monitor the process.
 
In a more helpful vein, why not find a little-used CPR rail spur on the flat windswept prairie somewhere in Manitoba, where no-one lives nearby?
 
Such a location would have three winners, CPR, the ACC, and Manitoba Hydro, which gets an energy boost.
 
David L. Davies.