Environmental group Voters Taking Action Against Climate Change strongly opposes the move to increase coal transfers at the facility, along with an application by Surrey terminal Fraser Surrey Docks to handle thermal coal shipped by rail from the US.
The Ministry of Energy and Mines approved Lafarge’s plan to increase coal storage from 150,000 tonnes to 800,000t in April.
The lawsuit questions whether Texada’s expansion application should have been controlled by local environmental legislation instead of the Mines Act, and if a waste discharge permit was required before the project could proceed.
It also argues that information about how run-off from the site will be managed should have been shared with the public.
If the court action is successful, the existing permit will be set aside and the Environmental Management Act applied to the project, VTAACC says.
