Much of the year Howe Sound water has a high concentration of suspended glacial silt, what affects would this have on a water cooling system?

Updated – January 2017

In October 2016, Squamish Nation Chiefs and Council voted to select air cooling as the cooling technique Woodfibre LNG Limited will use to cool its LNG facility. Find out more: https://www.woodfibrelng.ca/squamish-nation-announces-decision-on-woodfibre-lng-plant-cooling-technology/.

Hi David,

Thanks for your question.

The detailed design work for our proposed seawater cooling system will be done by professional engineers, and will include water quality considerations specific to Howe Sound.

Historic water quality data and new data, including turbidity and total suspended solids, were collected and examined by Woodfibre LNG’s environmental consultants during the environmental assessment phase of the Project, and also helped inform the preliminary design of the proposed cooling system.

It is also worth knowing that as part of the Squamish Nation Environmental Agreement, Woodfibre LNG has committed to conducting a more detailed investigation of cooling technologies, including seawater cooling, and Squamish Nation has a direct say on which cooling technology is used for the Project.