Trans Mountain Pipeline Updates
¶¡ÏãÔ°AV President's Statement on Transmountain Expansion Project and Support for a Fire Hall on Burnaby Mountain
¶¡ÏãÔ°AV has consistently raised concerns over the TransMountain Expansion Project specific to the tank farm and the risk it poses to our community of students, staff and faculty and UniverCity residents. Despite those concerns, the project was approved and continues to move ahead.
In my role as the new president of ¶¡ÏãÔ°AV I would like to reiterate that the University remains opposed to anything that increases the risk to our community. There are significant safety concerns about risk of fire, release of toxic emissions and potential blockage of the only evacuation route from ¶¡ÏãÔ°AV’s Burnaby campus in event of a fire and/or tank explosion at the tank farm.
When the tank farm expansion is complete, tanks will be within two hundred meters of the Gaglardi Way/Burnaby Mountain Parkway intersection, which is the only vehicle emergency access and egress route for the ¶¡ÏãÔ°AV Burnaby campus.
A new fire hall on top of Burnaby Mountain is a key component to protecting people at ¶¡ÏãÔ°AV and UniverCity. We strongly support the Burnaby Fire Department’s request to move this work forward and are working with the City of Burnaby on possible fire hall locations. In any emergency evacuation of the Burnaby campus, including an emergency fire related to the tank farm, ¶¡ÏãÔ°AV would rely on the Burnaby Fire Department along with other emergency responders to ensure the safety of our community.
It is imperative that our federal and local governments protect our community from any approved government initiatives that may impact safety. We continue to urge them to implement all safety measures to ensure our community is protected with the tank farm expansion currently underway.
Dr. Joy Johnson, ¶¡ÏãÔ°AV president and vice-chancellor
December 2020
Trans Mountain Pipeline Tank Farm Expansion Website Update
On June 18, 2019, the Government of Canada approved the Trans Mountain Expansion Project. Plans involve new tanks to be added to existing storage terminals, including the tank farm located on Burnaby Mountain.
As always, the safety of our students, staff, faculty and UniverCity residents is a top priority.
Working closely with the City of Burnaby and the Burnaby Fire Department, we’re taking a number of actions to to maximize the safety of the ¶¡ÏãÔ°AV community in the event of a potential crisis situation:
- ¶¡ÏãÔ°AV takes an all hazards approach to emergency management to ensure that our plans and response structures are adaptable and scalable making us more resilient. The Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan (CEMP) provides the ¶¡ÏãÔ°AV community with a framework and common understanding of emergency management activities and identifies our response priorities. The CEMP is reviewed and updated every three years
- Evacuation as well as sheltering in place procedures are established
- An extensive review of forest fire risks has been conducted
- Emergency alert communications systems are in place
- Emergency response preparedness exercises are regularly conducted
¶¡ÏãÔ°AV is working hard to keep our community members as safe as possible.
For questions or comments, please contact Mark LaLonde, Chief Safety Officer mark_lalonde@sfu.ca
November 28, 2016
¶¡ÏãÔ°AV Releases Report on Tank Farm Expansion
To the University Community,
¶¡ÏãÔ°AV today released a report from PGL Environmental Consultants documenting the health and safety risks to the university community that would result from Kinder Morgan’s plan to triple the capacity of its Burnaby Mountain tank farm as part of the Trans Mountain Expansion Project (TMEP).
A copy of the report has been sent to the Honourable James Carr, Minister of Natural Resources, together with a letter communicating the university’s concerns and expressing its objection to the tank farm expansion.
Any increase in risks to the health and safety of the ¶¡ÏãÔ°AV community is unacceptable to the university. The risks identified in this report are significant and deeply concerning, and ¶¡ÏãÔ°AV will continue to raise our concerns with both Kinder Morgan and the federal government.
Andrew Petter
President and Vice Chancellor
¶¡ÏãÔ°AV
May 28, 2015
Statement from Terry Waterhouse, Chief Safety Officer
As an intervenor in Trans Mountain Expansion Project’s National Energy Board application, ¶¡ÏãÔ°AV has submitted a document outlining our serious concerns around the project’s impact on the safety and security of our school community. At this time, ¶¡ÏãÔ°AV has yet to receive enough information to convince us that this proposed project addresses all of our health and safety concerns. The University has outlined all of these concerns in our submission to the NEB.
We remain committed to safeguarding the safety and security of our students and staff. To do so, ¶¡ÏãÔ°AV will continue its role as an active intervenor. We’re hopeful that the issues in our submission will be addressed by the NEB process. Should our concerns not be addressed, we will pursue all means necessary to address them on behalf of the ¶¡ÏãÔ°AV community.
Please see below for a list of all ¶¡ÏãÔ°AV studies and evidence related to the proposed Trans Mountain Expansion Project:
¶¡ÏãÔ°AV's Written Submission to the NEB - May 27, 2015
Review of Human Health risk Assessments: An Evidence Report - May 21, 2015
Hazards of ¶¡ÏãÔ°AV Associated with Trans Mountain Expansion Project: A Gap Analysis - May 21, 2015
Trans Mountain's Response to ¶¡ÏãÔ°AV Information Request No. 2
February 25, 2015
Trans Mountain pipeline expansion on Burnaby Mountain
Statement from Terry Waterhouse, Chief Safety Officer
In early 2014, Trans Mountain, a subsidiary of Kinder Morgan, applied to the National Energy Board (NEB) to revise the Company’s proposed pipeline route. The Company seeks to route the pipeline under a portion of Burnaby Mountain between their tank farms and the Westridge Marine Terminal in Burrard Inlet.
To address the operational needs of the University and to monitor neighbouring developments, ¶¡ÏãÔ°AV sought and received Intervenor status from the NEB on the proposed pipeline expansion in October 2014. The Intervenor status allows ¶¡ÏãÔ°AV the right to participate in the NEB hearings for Trans Mountain and provide comments. As part of the NEB process, ¶¡ÏãÔ°AV submitted a formal Information Request (IR) on January 2015. In February 2015 ¶¡ÏãÔ°AV received a response to our IR. We are currently reviewing the response and will determine next steps soon. Further information will be posted on this website as it becomes available.
All aspects of the process are public and both the Information Requests and the responses are posted on the NEB web portal: .