Several issues agreed to at National Energy Board meeting

It began with the potential for a full-blown donneybrook, but ended as something just short of a love-in.

It began with the potential for a full-blown donneybrook, but ended as something just short of a love-in.

Whitehorse businessmen Mike Mickey and Brad Taylor agree that progress was substantial at this week’s National Energy Board (NEB) meeting in Whitehorse, particularly last-minute movement by the Yukon government.

Taylor said if matters continue to move favourably, as he expects they will, construction of a new residential subdivision could begin next year on the site of the old industrial tank farm next to Valleyview.

“I feel very positive the development will move forward in the direction that we have always said it would, toward a residential, commercial, sustainable neighbourhood development,” Taylor said in an interview following the meetings.

The NEB was in town to host a technical conference and gather information in advance of a future public hearing, which has yet to be scheduled.

Facilitator Dave Gould said the intent of the meeting was to provide the three energy board members with a sense of what the parties were seeking, what they were agreed to and where the differences lie.

Yukon Pipelines Ltd. is seeking a ruling from the board that the tank farm property has been remediated to acceptable standards, and no longer requires the NEB’s involvement or supervision.

Such a ruling would enable Mickey to finalize his purchase of the property, and for Taylor to finalize his deal with Mickey for his residential development project.

While representatives of the Yukon government emphasized they still have outstanding concerns with the tank farm land, for the first time they did provide agreement on what Mickey and Taylor described as huge issues that have been contentious for several years.

When Yukon Pipelines applied in 1995 to abandoned the Whitehorse-Skagway pipeline system built by the U.S. Army in 1942-43, the NEB ordered the facilities would be declared abandoned - cleaned up - once certain conditions were met.

The order essentially focused on three areas: Whitehorse’s upper tank farm, the 140 kilometres of pipe and its right-of-way, and the pump station in Carcross.

Under the original order, all three areas are tied together and must be remediated to acceptable standards before either one of them can be released for other uses.

Yukon Pipelines asked the energy board several years ago if it would be possible to sever the three areas, so that once one area was remediated - such as the tank farm - it could be cut loose from the abandonment order and made available for private use.

But on the first day of the two-day hearing, government lawyer Teri Cherkewich told conference participants the government was not prepared at that moment to discuss the issue of severing the abandonment order.

The government caucus, she said, would have to meet later to discuss the issue.

Ruth Hall, the government’s co-ordinator of contaminated sites, suggested more information and more bore holes are still required to complete an adequate assessment of whether the tank farm still poses a risk.

The very next morning, Hall reported the government would support the request to break up the abandonment order into three distinct pieces, and that it would accept the validity of remediation work to date at the tank farm.

She emphasized, however, the government still has outstanding concerns related to the tank farm, and with the possibility of further offsite contamination caused by years of fuel leaking at the tank farm.

“I think Yukon put out a lot,” Cherkewich said, after Hall had put forward the government’s agreement on several issues, including the issue of severance, and remediation to date.

“I agree,” shot back a satisfied and buoyant Mickey.

Just the previous afternoon, the atmosphere was tense and terse, as different parties expressed their frustration with the government’s response to issues, and requests for further information.

Lawyers representing Mickey and the Yukon Pipelines reminded the conference of the huge amount of money spent in the last 13 years on reclamation and gathering scientific data. The cost of the two-day technical conference itself was astronomical, it was suggested.

If the government wasn’t prepared to advance discussions on relatively straightforward matters such as splitting up the abandonment order, perhaps there was no point continuing with the technical conference and the expense, it was suggested by David Bursey, on behalf of Mickey and Yukon Pipelines.

Bursey told the conference facilitator it might be best to jump straight to the public hearing, and the government could make its representations directly to the NEB’s three panel members.

“It was a dramatic turn of events,” Mickey said of the government’s position delivered the very next morning.

“I have not been this confident with the process in close to eight years.”

Without the government coming forward the way it did, the whole NEB review process could have easily gone sideways from here on, he believes.

The conference facilitator said his report on the technical conference would be delivered in 10 days.

Andrew Hudson, legal counsel for the NEB, said the three board panel members who will host the public hearing will ultimately decide the schedule from here on. The panel members, however, have a practice of delivering their decision within three months following a public hearing.

Hudson said while he could not speak for the panel members, he did assure conference participants that they are well aware of the time and effort that have gone into the process to date.

Bursey said it would be nice to have a hearing date no later than two months from now. All parties agreed there is no need for a full-blown public hearing in Whitehorse, and that a public hearing based on written submission would be adequate.

Mickey said with the ground gained at the technical conference, he is confident the NEB will agree the tank farm has been sufficiently remediated to a standard, that the energy board can declare it abandoned, and allow it to be cut loose and used for private development.

Like Taylor, Mickey can also see something concrete happening on the site with residential development plans by sometime next year.

Hall told the conference delegates the government is still not satisfied with the adequacy of information showing just how far and in what directions hydrocarbon contamination travelled from the tank farm.

There are still concerns regarding the presence of hydrocarbon vapours in the soil and ground water, and the potential impact they might have for a residential development, Hall noted.

The government is also not convinced Yukon Pipelines has done all it needs to do to prove that any remaining contamination on or offsite of the tank farm is within acceptable limits.

Yukon Pipelines acknowledges there is still hydrocarbon contamination of the ground water flowing from the tank farm area through to the bottom of Baxter’s Gulch below the escarpment. But the level is low and within human and environmental health standards, the company maintains.

Representatives of the government, Yukon Pipelines and the British Yukon Railway Co. did agree, however, that the 140 kilometres of pipeline right-of-way between Whitehorse and Skagway has been cleaned up, and can be officially declared abandoned. (Mickey removed the pipe in the late 1990s.)

British Yukon Railway owns the Carcross site. Company representatives told the technical conference they expect it will take another three to five years to sufficiently remediate it.

To keep the tank farm property tied up until the Carcross site is fully remediated is not in the best interest of the public, particularly in a housing market clamouring for residential lots, it was argued during the technical conference.

Taylor noted the tank farm has been cleaned up to standards well beyond what is required for an industrial site, and well within what is required for commercial use. There is very little work left to do to bring it up to standards suitable for residential use, he said.

Technically speaking, it was emphasized during the meetings, Yukon Pipelines simply needs to demonstrate the former industrial site has been remediated.

What it will be used for in the future is not something Yukon Pipelines needs to concern itself with, Bursey and others told the technical conference.

It was also emphasized, time and time again, that if and when an application for a residential subdivision does come along, it will have to go through a whole new environmental review and development assessment.

The Yukon government and the City of Whitehorse will have ample opportunity to raise any issues they may have with a subdivision proposal, it was emphasized, time and time again.

City planner Mike Gau said while the city is not prepared to jump into the technical debate, it wholeheartedly supports the residential development proposal if it can be done safely.

Taylor said there is no question the property is suitable for residential development.

Any issues that do arise with vapour - and he doesn’t think there will be any - can be easily handled with commonly accepted practices, he said.

Taylor’s conceptual plans call for a subdivision of between 300 and 350 lots, in several phases over five or six years.

An updated cost estimate of the streets and sidewalks, water and sewer installations, lighting and other infrastructure requirements was completed by a local firm three months ago, he said.

Taylor said he still needs to finalize his conceptual plan and have it approved by city hall, along with having the area rezoned. He also needs to run it through the Yukon Environmental and Socio-economic Assessment Board.

It’s entirely possible the legal survey work required to register the subdivision plan could begin next year, along with some initial site construction, Taylor said.