April 2, 2003
Estimates Debate
Question to Minister of Water, Land, and Air Protection During Budget Estimates
R. Lee: My question is regarding sulphide contents of gasoline. There will be a standard for gasoline that will contain less sulphide. Some of the refineries are going to extract some of those sulphide contents out of the gasoline. In the process they will release more sulphide compound into the air.
My question to the minister is: what kind of regulations are going to be used in B.C. to regulate that kind of extraction?
Hon. J. Murray: I would be happy to get a technical answer to that quite technical question for the member.
R. Lee: My other question is on the storage tanks for refineries and companies. I understand that there's a national standard for storage tanks, yet B.C. has its own standard. I understand that there's a move to a national standard for B.C. above-ground storage tanks. May I have an update on the progress on that movement?
Hon. J. Murray: I think the member is referring to a code of practice with respect to storage tanks that has been agreed on by the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment. The ministry staff consider this quite a prescriptive standard and have not put it into force in regulation in British Columbia. Some other provinces have, but the ministry staff believe there are other means of protecting the environment from storage tank spills. The research indicates that the outcomes in British Columbia are equivalent to the outcomes in provinces that have put into force the CCME code of practice with respect to the tanks.
R. Lee: So the ministry is not taking into account the national standard? When you compare the two standards, which standard is more protective of the environment?
Hon. J. Murray: The ministry does recommend that proponents review the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment guidelines in their decisions around their storage tanks, but the outcomes do not suggest that putting into regulation an enforcement of that code of practice produces a better outcome, so the ministry is not planning to do that. The ministry believes there are other mechanisms that are equally effective in protecting the environment.
R. Lee: Thank you.
Hon. J. Murray: Mr. Chair, I would like to rise and report progress and seek leave to sit again.
Motion approved.
