Prince George, B.C. -Spectra Energy is considered the “backbone” of the natural gas system in B.C.  getting natural gas from the  north east to  companies  that sell it,  but portions of that backbone were exposed  during  last month’s torrential  rainfall  through the South Peace region.

“The exposures and  daylighting ( where buried pipeline  becomes visible) occurred in the Peace River Regional District near  Chetwynd” says Jay Morrison, Lead Government and Community Relations person with Spectra .  “We have two systems in place there , one is the Pine River Gas Plant, one is the transmission system”. Both of those systems had  erosion effects because of the  flooding event.

“We are well into the remediation works for  both the transmission line and the gas plant” says  Morrison  “but the Pine River Gas Plant  remains offline.”

Morrison says  the   temporary shut down of the Pine River Gas Plant is not expected to impact the overall volume of product  moving through the transmission lines “It’s important to note there is significant storage of natural gas throughout North America,  so these are hiccups  but won’t effect delivery  to people’s households.”

Spectra  has some other work in the region  with the  most immediate work taking place on the Lheidli T’enneh Reserve.   That work  will see some  detection equipment  changed out.

Then there’s  the removal and replacement of two natural gas pipelines that  cross underneath Angusmac Creek about 80 kms north of Prince George.  The new pipe will be  placed deeper than the existing  line  with work to start late this year and  be complete  next summer.

There is also some  work planned on the line that runs between Azouzetta Lake,  along  highway 97  south  to  highway 39.  That work will  see the replacement of  new crossover assemblies which  can be used to isolate a section of pipeline,  and some old  connections removed.   The  work is  tentatively  set to start in the spring of 2017.