Brian Zinchuk is editor and owner of Pipeline Online
The red line indicated the Trans Mountain Pipeline right-of-way passing through the Jasper area. It passes right through the town, along the CN track, and is immediately adjacent to Highway 16 on the south side of the town. It runs roughly parallel to Highway 16 westbound. The red dot in the top right indicates the Jasper pump station. It’s 6 kilometres for the northeast corner of the Jasper townsite. Bing Map, modified by Brian Zinchuk.
UPDATED: The Trans Mountain Pipeline runs right through Jasper National Park and immediately adjacent to the townsite. Indeed that portion of the expansion project was built many years ago, long before construction of the rest of the expansion pipeline. But just a few months after it went online, it was at risk from the devastating fire that took out about a third of Jasper.
Fortunately, the pipeline appears to have been spared. Trans Mountain released the following statement on July 25:
As the wildfire situation in Jasper, Alberta, continues, Trans Mountain is focused on the health and safety of our workforce, their families, the community and the safety of our pipeline system. All employees and their families are safe.
We continue to work with the Town of Jasper and Jasper National Park to safely monitor the pipeline, at this time there is no indication of damage to our infrastructure, and the pipelines continue to operate safely.
To ensure we are supporting local emergency services, we are using our own firefighting equipment that was placed in Jasper and bringing in water to supply our equipment and continue to deploy our sprinkler system to protect our facilities.
Trans Mountain will continue to provide updates as developments occur.
An make no mistake, it was at risk, as indicated by this X post from Jasper National Park on July 24:
Structural firefighters remain in town and are working to save as many structures as possible and to protect critical infrastructure, including the wastewater treatment plant, communications facilities, the Trans Mountain Pipeline and others.
— Jasper National Park, Parks Canada (@JasperNP) July 25, 2024
If major damage had hit the pumping station, it would have been a huge setback to the just-recently-online expanded shipping capacity to the Pacific coast. The pipeline itself, as it runs along the edge of the town and along Highway 16, is buried one metre deep, and would otherwise be unaffected by a fire passing over it. That’s likely exactly what happened as the fire approached from the south, jumped the highway and lit ablaze the southwester third of the community.
Assessments of infrastructure damages is ongoing. The damage within the townsite is estimated at around 30%. Out of a total of 1113 structures within the town, 358 have been destroyed.
— Jasper National Park, Parks Canada (@JasperNP) July 26, 2024
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Here’s some details on the Jasper National Park portion of the pipeline system, from Trans Mountain’s webpage:
Completed in 2008, Trans Mountain’s award-winning Anchor Loop project involved installing a second pipeline next to the existing Trans Mountain pipeline — a 158-kilometre section of the existing Trans Mountain system between Hinton, Alberta and Hargreaves, BC, just west of Mount Robson Provincial Park. This included twinning a portion of the pipeline system crossing Jasper National Park and Mount Robson Provincial Park, both designated part of the Canadian Rocky Mountains Parks, a United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Site. The project also installed two new pump stations, the Wolf Pump Station near Niton Junction, Alberta, and the Chappel Pump Station near Pyramid, BC.
Anchor Loop project planning and permitting began in 2004. It included a robust engagement program that consulted with local stakeholders, environmental groups, Aboriginal Peoples and other interested parties. Given the sensitive environmental considerations, a rigorous environmental assessment (EA) process that met or exceeded the stringent environmental standards.
Project construction wrapped up in 2008, increasing the capacity of the pipeline system from 260,000 to 300,000 barrels per day (bpd).Once the new pipeline was activated, attention turned to continuing the pipeline’s right-of-way (ROW) restoration program. In 2009, several major restoration activities helped ensure a positive project legacy in both Jasper National Park and Mount Robson Provincial Park.
That expansion added a second line through the park. When the Trans Mountain Expansion Project was built, it basically extended that second line from the park east to Edmonton, and west to the coast, twinning the pipeline. Pipeline Online observed some of the construction through the park near the townsite around 2007-2008.
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