Alternative content

Enbridge Pipelines

The Enbridge Pipelines would carry oil from the Alberta tar sands to a west coast supertanker port at Kitimat. The route crosses 1,000 streams and rivers, including the salmon-bearing Fraser and Skeena. Friends of Wild Salmon is working with its allies to get a full public inquiry for the Enbridge project, and to protect Skeena wild salmon from the grave threat it poses.

The Enbridge Project

The Enbridge proposal includes two parallel 1,150-kilometre pipelines from the tar sands in northern Alberta to Kitimat.

One pipeline would carry between 400,000 to 1,000,000 barrels a day of crude oil from the tar sands to the BC coast, while the second pipeline would carry 150,000 barrels a day of condensate, a chemical and petroleum mixture used to dilute tar sands crude oil extracted so that it can travel by pipeline.

Tankers would be necessary to transport the pipeline’s contents of oil and condensate to and from the United States, China, India and other markets.

Approval of the Enbridge project would require creating a loophole in or lifting of a 34-year-old federal moratorium on crude oil tanker traffic in British Columbia’s fragile inside waters. To transport both oil and condensate, as many as 10 tankers per week, or 320 tankers per year, would travel 100 kilometres through BC’s inside passage and coastal waters and another 140 kilometres up a fjord to Kitimat.

What are the risks?

The north coast waters present an extremely risky environment for activities such as coastal oil and gas
extraction and tanker traffic. The threats from tanker traffic include air pollution, ballast discharge, and terminal accidents during loading and discharge.

The most significant environmental concern, however, is the risk of oil spills from tanker accidents.

The north coast is an extremely ecologically rich area. It includes numerous salmon and Gray whale migratory routes, at least 650 spawning rivers, the Pacific Flyway, and the feeding habitat of Humpback whales and Orca.

The commercial fishery in BC employs approximately 16,000 people. Sport fishing, fish processing and
commercial fishing generate close to $1.7 billion combined each year. In addition, the north coast crab
fishery supports 41 commercial crab vessels that fish Dungeness crab in Hecate Strait; from this fishery alone $20 million worth of crab is produced, and it employs 145 people on vessels and 250 shoreworkers.

An oil spill along the BC north central coast could kill thousands of marine animals and destroy habitats as well as drastically affect the fishing and tourist industries.

How will it impact salmon?

The Enbridge pipeline would require over 1,000 stream and river crossings. Spills and leaks can be a major source of contamination in rivers and streams, exposing these sensitive aquatic ecosystems to oil and other toxic substances.

Pipeline construction and operation can also impact salmon and other fish by releasing sediment into streams and rivers. Increased sedimentation harms fish survival and damages valuable spawning beds.

First Nations

The Enbridge pipeline would affect the traditional territories and rights of at least 31 inland and 10 coastal
First Nations. A recent study concluded the pipeline would have a devastating impact on hunting, fishing, trapping, berry picking, spiritual activities, traditional village sites, recreational activities, and travel routes, with few if any corresponding benefits to First Nations communities.

The Supreme Court of Canada has confirmed the Crown has an ongoing duty to consult and accommodate First Nations with respect to decisions that potentially infringe Aboriginal Title and Rights. If this duty is not met, approvals and decisions are vulnerable to legal challenge.

The impacts of an oil tanker spill on the rights and cultures of coastal First Nations and others that depend on wild salmon are potentially devastating.

Why we need a full public inquiry

Once again, Northern BC communities face crude oil pipelines through their salmon rivers and oil tankers through their marine waterways. Ottawa is attempting to push aside a 35-year old oil tanker moratorium with a soft, deregulatory licensing process. The West Coast Oil Ports Inquiry, which was examining implications of tanker traffic on the BC coast, was never completed. Now is the time to finish it.

Enbridge is proposing to build a dual pipeline through Northwestern BC. The 1150 km pipeline would connect expanding Alberta Tarsands production to crude oil tankers at Kitimat destined for export to Asian markets. The pipelines, one for exporting crude oil and the other for importing condensate, would cross approximately 1000 streams and rivers, many of which are in the Skeena and Upper Fraser watersheds.

Enbridge is hoping to obtain social and regulatory license for its project through something called a Joint Panel Review. The company hopes to file its application later in 2009 with the National Energy Board and the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency.

The proposed Joint Review Panel does not meet the needs of communities. It’s a process where the decisions that count are made in a very formal proceeding run by high-priced corporate and government lawyers. It’s a process that is inaccessible to the public. A Joint Review Panel will studiously avoid the yes or no question of whether Tarsands oil should be transported through our waterways and will focus on the how question of reducing, not eliminating, risk to fish, ecosystems and people. Enbridge should be prepared to accept a ‘no’ from communities.

In addition to the wrong type of process, the proposed scope of the Joint Review Panel assessment is insufficient. Enbridge’s application will not talk about lifting the oil tanker moratorium, about how the pipelines will facilitate expanded Tarsands development, about how the project will contribute to Canadian energy sustainability, or if the project meshes with our salmon economy and cultures.

The good news is that there’s a model for the right process. Three decades ago there was another proposal for an oil port at Kitimat and pipeline to Alberta. A West Coast Oilport Enquiry was initiated under Dr. Andrew Thompson. Government terminated the inquiry in 1978 when Thompson began to uncover an embarrassing lack of sound rationale for constructing the pipeline. However, the structure of the Thompson inquiry provides a good model for assessing the appropriateness of a project such as Enbridge, because it asked whether the infrastructure should be built at all, not simply how they should be built.