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Science should examine pipeline's technical risks

Re: "PM says science to govern pipeline," Aug. 8. Prime Minister Stephen Harper rightly says the only way to handle controversial projects is to have an independent scientific and engineering evaluation.
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Prime Minister Stephen Harper says science will decide the fate of the Northern Gateway pipeline project.

Re: "PM says science to govern pipeline," Aug. 8.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper rightly says the only way to handle controversial projects is to have an independent scientific and engineering evaluation.

I presume he also expects such an evaluation to include the technical risks that are inevitably part of any project. With this technical evaluation cost and economic risk/reward assessments can be made creating a comprehensive picture from which a decision is feasible and more likely to be the correct one.

My concern is this: Why does Harper endorse this view for the Enbridge project and not for for the proposed sewage-treatment plant in Victoria? That seems to be governed by a federal edict that all towns must have a sewage plant with secondary treatment, whether it needs it or not.

I doubt if any scientist or engineer with any knowledge on this subject believes Victoria requires it. And now we are to have a commission whose remit will undoubtedly be: Build this plant. If a need assessment is now a thing of the past, we can only hope the commission will be capable of reviewing the current cost estimate before work starts.

James Brown

Saanich