Citizens group VAPOR has lost its legal challenge of the B.C. government’s granting of an environmental certificate for the controversial Vancouver Airport Fuel Delivery Project.
The group — set up by Richmond residents to protest the plan to barge aviation fuel up the south arm of the Fraser River to a dedicated off-loading terminal, which will then be piped to YVR — had been challenging the certificate at the BC Supreme Court on grounds that the public was not properly consulted during the environmental assessment process.
However, on Wednesday, June 24, the court ruled in favour of the provincial Environmental Assessment Office and the fuel delivery plan proponents Vancouver Airport Fuel Facilities Corporation (VAFFC) — a non- profit organization owned by a consortium of most of the commercial airlines that operate out of YVR.
VAPOR and its environmental expert, retired DFO biologist, Otto Langer, said they are “disappointed” by the court’s decision and are reviewing it with their legal counsel to determine what can be done next.
In the meantime, VAPOR requested again that Air Canada, West Jet, Lufthansa, Air China and the other airlines using YVR “objectively re-examine other options of supplying jet fuel to YVR that avoid transporting highly toxic and flammable jet fuel in the south arm of the Fraser River by tankers and barges for storage and distribution via pipeline across Richmond to YVR.”
*More on this story to follow
