Report - Agence canadienne d'évaluation environnementale

Assessing the risks related to the project
♦ Finding — The Panel found that the data and accident review confirm the fact that the
St. Lawrence Seaway can represent a navigation risk in certain locations, especially
the Escoumins, île Rouge and the Traverse du Nord sectors.
The TERMPOL process
The TERMPOL process is managed by Transport Canada, and focuses on the
itinerary of a specified reference ship in Canadian territorial waters to reach a berthing
wharf at the marine terminal or the proposed transhipment station. More specifically, it
is concerned with the cargo handling activities occurring between ships, between a
ship and the shore and vice versa. The goal of this process is to reduce as much as
possible the consequences of some circumstances which may threaten the integrity of
the ship’s hull and its cargo storage system, and consequently the environment
around the ship. This process is applied to operating security measures concerning
the special conditions of the site, the navigation area in question, and related shipping
lanes (DB10).
This process was carried out at the proponent’s request. The TERMPOL Review
Committee is made up of representatives from various federal and provincial
departments and organizations, as well as specialized consultants. Its mandate is to
assess the risks that the site and operations of an LNG terminal located in Lévis
represent to navigation and public security. On May 15, 2007, Transport Canada
published a report which comprises its recommendations for this project (DA88).
Grounding and collision risks
In order to assess the risks between the mouth of the Gulf of St. Lawrence (Cabot
Strait) and the planned LNG terminal, and in addition to the berthing wharf operations,
the proponent divided and analyzed the possible itinerary of LNG tankers according to
the characteristics of the following four segments (Figure 7):
– From the mouth of the Gulf of St. Lawrence to Les Escoumins.
– From Les Escoumins (pilot station) to the mouth of the Traverse du Nord.
– From the Traverse du Nord to the embarking site of the river pilots 1 , close to
Saint-Laurent-de-L’Île-d’Orléans.
– from Saint-Laurent-de-L’Île-d’Orléans to the terminal jetty of the project.
1. A person duly qualified to steer ships into or out of a harbor or through certain difficult waters.
[On-line: http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=PILOT&r=66].
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