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| credit: WWF-Canada |
The "Northern Gateway" pipeline and tanker route proposed by Enbridge is running into legal opposition from environmentalists who allege the Canadian government failed to meet its obligations under the Species at Risk Act intended to protect endangered species. An court initial hearing of the suit was held in Vancouver, BC last week. The long delayed recovery strategies for four protected species--the Pacific Humpback whale, Nechako white sturgeon, marbled murrelet and souther mountain caribou--were released too late for consideration by the federal government panel reviewing the Northern Gateway proposal. The panel recommended approval of the pipeline proposal without reviewing the plans for protected species. Five environmental groups say all of these species would be adversely impacted by the Enbridge proposal which calls for a 1177km pipeline to carry diluted bitumen over the Canadian Rockies to British Columbia's Pacific coast where it would be offloaded onto tankers. Currently there is a moratorium on new tanker traffic in British Columbia's narrow coastal waterways. Some of the recovery strategies were years late arriving. The humpback whale plan which identified oil spills and vessel traffic as two threats to whale survival and recovery was four and half years late and too late to be considered by the National Energy Board's Joint Review Panel. Environmental law firm, Ecojustice, representing the environmentalists argues the delay makes it easier for development projects like the pipeline and tanker terminal at Kitimat to be approved since critical habitats are not scientifically identified beforehand. More than 160 other at-risk species, including the southern mountain caribou
[photo] that inhabits the pipeline's route through the Rockies, still have not received their recovery strategies. The pipeline would cross hundreds of streams, rivers and lakes inhabited by fish, disturb previously untouched wilderness, and cross traditional territories of 40 First Nation groups. Many of these indigenous people are standing against the pipeline proposal.
