Alton Gas Scraps N.S. Natural Gas Project
HALIFAX— Alton Gas is giving up on a natural gas storage project it has been trying to get off the ground in Nova Scotia for nearly 20 years.
The company had hoped to store as much as 10 billion cubic feet of natural gas in underground caverns near the banks of the Shubenacadie River, in Colchester County. It wanted to create the caverns by hollowing out underground salt deposits with water from the river.
The project would have included a natural gas pipeline linking the caverns to the North American natural gas supply network.
For most of its life, the plan has been plagued by controversary and challenges.
The project was put on hold in 2014 after protestors set up camp near the proposed project site. Last year, the Sipekne’katik First Nation also won a court challenge that essentially voided Alton’s permission to move forward with the project.
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Alton Gas is owned by Calgary energy company AltaGas. In an Oct. 22 news release, Alton said AltaGas had “repositioned its focus” and “divested its interest” in the local utility in 2018.
That divestment, the “mixed support,” challenges, and delays the project faced, as well as the “challenging nature of the storage project economics” has finally prompted Alton to start decommissioning the project.
Over the coming months, Alton plans to talk to regulators, Mi’kmaq communities, and other key stakeholders about the next steps in the decommissioning process.
The company says it will “continue working to minimize our environmental impact” as the decommissioning unfolds.
Alton also said in its news release it believes natural gas storage “remains extremely important for the Maritimes” as demand continues to grow.
Trevor Nichols is a Huddle reporter in Halifax. Send him your feedback and story ideas: [email protected].
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