Pipeline Review Hearings: United By Salmon, “Radical” Citizens Unite Against the Enbridge Pipeline
KITIMAT, BRITISH COLUMBIA - A Northern wind is blowing against the proposed Enbridge Gateway pipeline, as British Columbians from all walks of life are joining in opposition on the first day of hearings in Kitimat B.C.
Facing a hostile federal government, a diverse group of citizens including outdoorsmen, fishermen, retired engineers and naturalists have found common cause in salmon.
“The threat from the Enbridge pipeline from fresh water to the marine environment, is one we will not accept," said Arnie Nagy, shore worker and executive member of the United Fishermen and Allied Workers’ Union. “We have been involved in the campaign against a supertanker oil port at Kitimat since the first proposal in 1977. Salmon is what unites us as Northerners. Risks to salmon are a ‘no-go’ up here.”
Community members across Northern BC are coming together due to the threats from Enbridge’s Northern Gateway pipeline proposal.
“I would hardly call myself a ‘radical’,” said Dave Shannon, retired engineer from Alcan and member of Douglas Channel Watch. “The more I looked into oil tankers and walked the proposed pipeline route on the Upper Kitimat River, the less convinced I became that this project could ever be engineered safely.”
Friends of Morice Bulkley, Douglas Channel Watch and several other community-based groups are registered as intervenors for the Joint Review Panel. The groups have been highlighting risks to wild salmon, such as landslides and avalanches, which have sheared and ruptured natural gas pipelines in the past.
“We’re a bunch of locals not typically involved. This pipeline would be a permanent risk to our salmon and our rivers,” says retired biologist Dawn Remington, of Friends of Morice-Bulkley in Smithers. “When we discovered the proposed pipeline would go through the headwaters of our river, it set off alarm bells".
The project would cross Canada’s two largest salmon producing rivers, risking multi-million dollar commercial and sport fisheries. Constitutionally protected First Nations food fisheries would also be threatened.
Contact Information:
Dave Shannon, Douglas Channel Watch: 250-615-7639
Arnie Nagy, United Fishermen and Allied Workers’ Union: 250-627-6811
Dawn Remington, Friends of Morice-Bulkley: 250-847-3836