Vancouver, British Columbia, port officials have revoked a permit to allow a local terminal to build a 4mn metric tonnes/year coal export facility that would have primarily handled US Powder River basin (PRB) coal.

The Vancouver Fraser Port Authority on 30 January canceled a 2014 permit that would have allowed Fraser Surrey Docks (FSD) to build a direct transfer coal facility. FSD did not return requests for comment.

“Substantial progress on construction of the authorized works was not demonstrated” by 30 November 2018, which was a condition of the project permit, the port authority said. There were 83 conditions attached to the permit that “must be adhered to,” but FSD did not meet enough of the requirements.

The company could submit a new project application, but it would have to go through the port authority’s standard project and environmental review process again.

FSD had originally expected its direct transfer coal facility to go into service in 2013.

But the project has been tied up by opposition from community and environmental groups.

“With the permit canceled, it is hard to see how the Fraser Surrey Docks coal project could ever end up being built,” Ecojustice lawyer Fraser Thomson.

Environmental group Ecojustice represented Communities and Coal Society and two local residents in the legal battle against the project. A decision in that case is pending.

US coal producers had hoped to take advantage of the additional export option. Work on a coal export terminal in Washington state is on hold while developers battle the government over permits. Most PRB coal is exported through Neptune Bulk Terminals and Westshore Terminals, which has contracts with companies such as Cloud Peak Energy and Lighthouse Resources.

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