How important is Lac La Biche's upcoming municipal planning meeting? Ask the residents in West, Texas.
When a fertilizer plant located within a few hundred metres of two schools and a residential subdivision exploded in the small US town of 3200 people last Wednesday, the damage was devastating. Homes were flattened. People died. It might be a continent away, but the tragedy — an incident most people would not have thought possible — could easily have local connections if the current plans for local development are delivered poorly. Are we being too sensational? Stretching too far just to get a reaction? Not really. In fact, the Lac La Biche community was a few weeks away from welcoming its own version of a fertilizer plant to its downtown in 2011.
At that time, plans to install a 36,000 gallon propane tank at what was then the Mutual Propane location in downtown Lac La Biche were shut down by council — after they had already given development permits allowing the propane retailer to put the tank in place. The tank was to be set up on lot beside the long-standing propane retail location, a location across the road from the Vera M. Welsh Elementary School, the J. A. Williams High School and on the other side of a chain-link fence from the Off-Campus school and the A&W restaurant. Within 200 metres of the location there are also two gas service stations.
An aerial view of the West community in Texas — including images of the scarred blast zone — shares many similarities to the propane tank location. In a nutshell it was a potential powder keg amid a compressed location of people, activity and commerce. Liquid propane in a 30-foot long pressurized container was either going to be as non-threatening as a simple, white, oval container sitting on a road-side lot, or it was going to be as non-threatening as many residents in a small US town may have thought a fertilizer plant was going to be. How bad could an explosive incident be with 36,000 gallons of propane? An article in the Feb. 24, 2012 Seattle Times reported a 300-gallon tank that ruptured a valve during a move exploded and caused a 300 foot-radius blast zone, destroying two buildings and injuring five people. If three- hundred gallons equals a 300-foot blast zone. By the same math, would 36,000 gallons produce a blast zone of 36,000 feet — or almost 11 kilometres. The math is probably way off, but how far off? And how far away do you live? In the case of the propane tank, the council of the day finally realized they had to err on the side of caution. Despite papers having already been signed, they stopped the planned install and made arrangements with the owners to set up shop on nice land in an industrial park outside of the residential area. That is where industry belongs; away from the dense population, away from sensitive environmental areas ... just away.
Where future industrial and commercial development will be allowed to set up shop in and around our region is the focus of the April 23 Municipal Development Planning meeting. The meeting will contain the same information that was delivered at a meeting held almost a month ago. That night, the MDP meeting shared the start time and same building as a planning and discussion meeting about a 200-stall campground being built at Poplar Point on the north shore of Lac La Biche lake. Ironically, the campsite project, which had already received development permits from the municipality was halted by council due to a list of poor planning procedures that municipal officials had not carried out. Not all planning decisions will put school children and residents in mortal danger if something goes wrong. But poor planning and being ill-prepared for the future and the unexpected, is not how a community can move ahead. Plan to attend the meeting next Tuesday night. The doors open at 7 p.m. at McArthur Place. Poor planning at its best will negatively affect the environment, neighbourhoods and livelihoods. Poor planning at its worst will affect lives.
