Preliminary Borrow Source Study Mackenzie Valley Corridor

Author : Raymond Baksi
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 104 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (911 download)

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Download or read book Updating Selected Information Related to the Mackenzie Gas Project written by Raymond Baksi and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page 104 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The background and history of the various proposals since its inception in the early 1970's for a Mackenzie Valley gas pipeline in the Northwest Territories have been well documented. Within the most recent push of the last few years to get approval and construction started, the Proponent (Including the Producer and Aboriginal Pipeline Groups) have expressed a desire to have a pipeline in place and operating by 2010. As with many ongoing projects in the logistics and planning stages many changes have been made to streamline, simplify, and improve the overall venture. It is these changes and new release of data that was analysed for content relating to requirements of granular resources in terms of when and where, the quantity and quality, and the granular deposits projected to provide these resources. The following data, image manipulation, and data analysis was conducted using a Geographical Information System (GIS) called Manifold GIS Universal Edition 6.5. Preliminary Engineering Alignment Sheets dated February 1, 2005 reveal terrain units along the pipeline right-of-way. The 23 images containing this information were georegistered using a combination of matchline coordinates in degree-minute-second format and visual identification using images from the Mackenzie Gathering System COGOA Volume 4, given in UTM coordinates. The COGOA Volume 4 maps were georeferenced in the report titled ?Summary of Granular Resource Requirements and Availability for the Mackenzie Valley Gas Pipeline Corridor? March 2005 by Raymond Baksi. With the help of the Canadian Spatial Reference System GSRUG's online computation, the degree-minute-second coordinates were converted to UTM coordinates and the Algorithmic method 'Affine' (Scale, shift, rotate) in Manifold was applied to georegister the images. Terrain units depicting sand and gravel within a corridor around the gathering pipelines were digitized into area polygons. One-hundred-seventy-eight (178) in total were identified and logged, 73 of those were unique values. Pits, roads, and water sources were extracted from 1:50000 scale images of the route, georeferenced and provided by Ward Kilby at Cal Data Ltd. There were 126 distinct pits identified, 143 water sources, and 340 road or road segments connecting the pits, water sources, and the pipeline route. Land and water project permit applications for each of the four (4) land claim settlement areas; Gwich'in, Inuvialuit, Sahtu, and Deh Cho Regions were reviewed for mention of borrow materials. A hyperlink document tree was created for each of these applications to guide those interested in borrow material directly to those sections. Imperial Oil proposed several changes to the project on July 26, 2005. The Inuvik area facility would be relocated approximately 16 kilometres south down the pipeline from its initial location, and eight (8) pipeline line segments represent re-routes. These pipeline route segments totalled 77.3 kilometres and in all cases situated such that they shortened the total length of the pipeline. Although certainly not new, the Mackenzie Highway route was digitized from the initial 1974 Public Works Canada Western Region report. Completion of construction and ongoing maintenance of this highway which runs parallel to the proposed pipeline will compete for the same granular resources. The Proponent provided three large data sets, Pipeline Landform, Pipeline Sensitivity and Pipeline Vegetation prepared by AMEC Americas Limited. The pipeline landform images contained detailed polygons representing landform types. DIAND already has a set of data (from terrain units maps) representing sand and gravel landform features, so only the footprints of the 159 AMEC Pipeline landform images were digitized. If, at a later time, the data contained within these images is necessary it can easily be extracted from the georegistered files. With the high transportation costs and limited construction season in the north there is a concern over the correct distribution of granular resources, relative to proposed linear projects in the Mackenzie Valley. A comparison between the proposed pipeline and the Mackenzie Highway potential granular extraction haulage distance was prepared to better understand the competitive nature for these resources. Imaginary haulage buffers were created around the highway and the pipeline in one (1) kilometre increments, five (5) kilometres and 19 kilometres respectively. These buffers overlapped at various locations. This area of overlap is an area that will be ?stressed? for granular resources. In total 95 different combinations of pipeline and highway overlaps were compared and percentage overlaps calculated. Five (5) facility relocations and approximately 117 kilometres of the pipeline and gathering pipeline have been proposed to be re-routed by the project update (10800) on November 23, 2003. The reduction in the total number of compressor stations by one (1) and the re-routed pipeline will shorten the total length of the pipeline by roughly 26 kilometres. The number of primary borrow source sites cited for granular extraction has increased by one (1) to 68 and secondary sites have decreased by three (3) to 46. Despite the total reduction in granular sources, estimated granular resource requirements have increased by 1.6 Mm3. This data was extracted from eight (8) useful images provided in the report submitted by Sandy Martin on behalf of Imperial Oil. ... The borrow sites identified in the Environmental Impact Statement Volume 2 Project Description from August 2004 were compared with that of the newly released February 2006 update Mackenzie Gas Project EIS Additional Information for the Joint Review Panel Environmental Inputs and Outputs. This report also estimates the total increase in volume of required granular material at 1.6 million cubic meters (Mm3) for a total of 6.5 Mm3. There were a total of 14 borrow sites added and 22 removed from the official list of granular resources sites. This results in a total of eight (8) less granular sites under consideration for use. Additionally, some borrow sites initially considered primary sites have moved to become secondary sites and some secondary sites moved to primary consideration" -- ASTIS [online] database.