The George Hotel, Condos, and Marina proposal has reared its ugly head.

On Tuesday, May 12^th, at 7 p.m. at Gibsons Legion, the new council will be considering the geotechnical (aquifer) study for Klaus Fuerniss’s George hotel along with peer reviews of the study. They will also consider giving first reading to a zoning bylaw enabling the development.

You will recall that Fuerniss’s development application originally included a report by Horizon Engineering that said excavations for the project would not harm Gibsons’ aquifer, and that GABC was very troubled by this claim. We commissioned a peer review of the report in January 2014 that determined excavations would in fact penetrate Gibsons’ aquifer. After a year of study and further peer review, it turns out that all our concerns and predictions have been proven correct.

For fuller details of the many things that are just plain wrong with this plan, please read below “the fold”. The bottom line is that this project is far too risky, would be a huge loss of public assets, and would leave us with serious environmental and tax liabilities.

Please come out to the council meeting on Tuesday at the Legion, 7 p.m., and help protect our waterfront from over-development, preserve our seaside village character, and ensure the integrity of our aquifer.

By: Laurie Parkinson, Biologist, BSc, MSc, UBC and Eoin Finn, BSc, PhD Physics & Chemistry, MBA International Business, retired partner at KPMG

Three lines of evidence indicate the Woodfibre LNG project will be six times (6x) larger than the public and the BC Environmental Assessment Office have been told.

Woodfibre Liquefied Natural Gas appears to have far bigger export plans than they are admitting.

In section 2.4.1 of the WFLNG BC Environmental Assessment (BCEAO) application, WFLNG states: "The initial search for suitable project locations focused on sites suitable for a large-scale LNG facility and potential for future expansion." When queried as to whether or not WFLNG intends to expand this project, WFLNG's Vice President Corporate Affairs Byng Giraud’s response has always been that the plant will be sized according to the available gas supply.

FortisBC appears to be aware of expansion plans.

By Margot Grant

Constant disruption to the ferry service may be the least of our worries if LNG tankers start traversing Howe Sound. If a tanker explodes, Horseshoe Bay, Bowen Island or parts of the Sea to Sky Highway are obliterated. And if the tanker captain chooses Thornborough Channel, Gibsons would be utterly destroyed in case of an explosion.

By Jef Keighley

Woodfibre LNG fails all of SIGTTO’s internationally accepted industry standards for the safe siting of LNG teminals

This paper advances the argument that the Woodfibre site on BC’s Howe Sounds is not now and can never be a safe location to construct an LNG export terminal despite what the proponent, Woodfibre LNG alleges.  Further, the potential disruption to other marine traffic, commercial and recreational, is too disruptive with too great an adverse economic impact on the communities within Howe Sound to permit.