In terms of the schedule, the Springbank Off-Stream Reservoir (Springbank Project) is currently progressing through the regulatory process.
As part of the regulatory process, Alberta Transportation (the Springbank Project proponent) was required to conduct an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) on the Project, to be submitted to both the provincial Natural Resources Conservation Board (NRCB) and the federal Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (CEAA) for review.
The original EIA was submitted to both regulators in October 2017, albeit already delayed by more than five months in an effort to reduce the risk of additional requests.
In November 2017, in a letter addressed to Alberta Transportation, the CEAA outlined 24 areas where the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) was deficient in conforming to the CEAA’s requirements.
The revisions were anticipated to be completed by the end of January, however, the CEAA and Alberta Transportation opted to conduct further and enhanced consultation with the Tsuu t’ina Nation and identified Indigenous groups for an additional two months.
Finally, taking into account all of CEAA’s additional information requests, Alberta Transportation submitted the updated Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on March 29, 2018.
The revised submission includes a concordance table outlining where the additional information requested by the CEAA can be found in the updated March 2018 EIS.
The CEAA has a maximum of 30 calendar days to complete a conformity review of the revised submission. Despite delays, the Project has still managed to closely follow the anticipated schedule.
The NRCB had also requested additional information, which was included in the revised March 2018 version of the EIA/EIS. The revised March 2018 application was also submitted to Alberta Environment and Parks (AEP), who will review the report and the material on behalf of the NRCB. AEP has also committed to completing its conformity review within one month.
The 30 day limit for both the CEAA and the AEP conformity reviews has now lapsed and we anticipate to receive news of the result any day now.
We will continue to update you as we receive more information on this matter. If you have any questions regarding this information, feel free to reach out to us at info@floodfreecalgary.com.