Two weeks ahead of a court date that will challenge the provincial government’s environmental assessment of a jet fuel facility on the Fraser River, VAPOR is asking the City of Richmond for financial support and a reiteration that it opposes the project.
At a general purposes committee meeting Monday all city councillors and Mayor Malcolm Brodie made it clear — they oppose any plan to tanker jet fuel up the river.
The committee then passed a motion by Coun. Evelina Halsey-Brandt to direct city staff to look at the legal options to the VAPOR court case, including the possibility of joining as an intervener and making financial contribution to the legal fees.
Interveners must have a rationale for intervention and be able to assist the courts with its decision.
As it stands the facility will store up to more than 100 million litres of jet fuel near Riverport. Panamax tankers will unload the overseas fuel, which will subsequently be piped through Richmond to the airport.
Coun. Harold Steves proposed giving VAPOR $5,000 to fund its $50,000 court case, which claims the province and an airlines consortium, Vancouver Airport Fuel Facilities Corporation (VAFFC), improperly consulted the public on the project.
VAPOR chair Otto Langer said the case could be precedent setting.
He noted the federal government rejected a similar project, about 25 years ago, after much public scrutiny.
Langer said Brodie’s prior remarks that the city would not take legal action because it had little chance of winning “diminished” VAPOR’s efforts in the court of public opinion.
“We feel there is an overarching moral and ethical issue here if we sit back and now allow this terrible precedent to occur in our river,” said Langer in a letter to the committee.
Coun. Bill McNulty again voiced his disapproval of the facility but said it was the first time he heard the specifics of the VAPOR court case. And while “somewhere down the road there will be a spill” he said he must consider the fact “it’s taxpayers money.”
Coun. Chak Au said “we should support them to the best we can” but also wanted more information.
VAPOR wants VAFFC to look at other ground-level options that avoid the river. For its part VAFFC has said the river option is the best as it avoids pipeline expansion and rail and truck shipments. Sea shipments also provide more reliable sources of fuel for the airport, said VAFFC.
After raising more than $45,000, the grassroots environmental group is set for a judicial hearing on Nov.26 with a decision expected to come months later.
To date, other municipalities have taken such measures to combat increased fossil fuel transport through their neighbourhoods: Burnaby is fighting Kinder Morgan in court over the twinning of a pipeline while New Westminster and Surrey are interveners in an Ecojustice lawsuit against a planned coal transfer facility at Fraser Surrey Docks.
Councillors will decide to if they will take a similar path within the next two weeks.
“It’s important for the port (Metro Vancouver) to see we’re not just a little group of ‘eco-freaks’ and no one else gives a damn about the river,” said Langer.
