B.C: Region's big natural gas users switch to dirty fuels

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Last Updated: Tuesday 9 January 2001

Region's big natural gas users switch to dirty fuels

The move raises fears about area's air quality Chad Skelton Vancouver Sun

Dozens of the Lower Mainland's largest users of natural gas have switched over to dirtier fuels like oil to save money -- raising fears the region's air quality could soon suffer.

About 75 of BC Gas' business customers have significantly reduced their gas purchases or stopped buying gas altogether over the past few months, Cam Avery, a spokesman for the utility, said Monday.

While some of those companies have shut down temporarily to wait out high gas prices, BC Gas believes most have switched to cheaper, dirtier fuels like diesel and heating oil.

Central Heat Distribution, which heats more than a hundred downtown office buildings, recently switched to heating oil -- which is about half the price of natural gas.

Central Heat's John Barnes, who is also head of the Lower Mainland Large Gas Users Association, estimates that "better than 50 per cent [of the association's members] have switched to alternative fuels."

Simon Fraser University switched from natural gas to heating oil in mid-November, said Rick Johnson, SFU's associate vice-president of administration.

And Royal Columbian and Burnaby hospitals switched to diesel in early December.

Ken Anderson, director of plant services for the Simon Fraser Health Region -- which manages the two hospitals -- said the facilities have always had the option to burn diesel when natural gas was in short supply during cold periods.

But the longest the hospitals had ever been on diesel before the recent gas-price crisis was eight days during a long cold snap a decade ago. Since Dec. 6, the hospitals have been burning nothing but diesel, Anderson said.

On Sunday, a greenhouse owner in Aldergrove estimated one-quarter of all greenhouses in the Lower Mainland have switched to other fuels.

The mass move to dirtier fuels has taken the Greater Vancouver regional district by surprise.

Bob Smith, administrator for the GVRD's air quality control department, said his staff has been working feverishly over the past week trying to determine how many businesses and institutions have switched to fuels other than natural gas.

The district is still trying to figure out a way to regulate the use of heating oil -- something that was never an issue before because clean-burning natural gas was the cheapest fuel on the market.

Much like a car engine, the emissions created by oil-burning boilers vary greatly depending on how well-tuned they are. But even well-maintained boilers burning oil create more pollution than natural gas, Smith said.

"You would get more particulate from it," Smith said. "And you would get more sulphur from it."

But despite the mass switch to oil and diesel, Smith said the GVRD's pollution monitoring system has not yet noticed any changes in the air quality.

"In the last couple of months, we haven't noticed any real changes from the fuel switching," he said.

However, air quality is usually best during the winter when heavy rains and high winds prevent pollutants from collecting, he said. Fuel-switching's impact could become more noticeable in the summer, when air quality in the region is at its worst, Smith said.

Environmental groups, including the Sierra Legal Defence Fund, have raised concerns that the increased use of dirty fuels could hurt the region's air quality.

The GVRD recently passed a temporary measure to allow industries like greenhouses to amend their emission permits to burn dirtier fuels as their primary source. But since many industries, including greenhouses, don't have emission permits, they made the switch without first seeking approval from the GVRD.

http://www.vancouversun.com/newsite/news/010109/5070586.html

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), January 09, 2001


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