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Shell assessing impact
Sep 05, 2007Black Press
By Quinn Bender
Shell Canada has told the provincial supreme court it needs to study a mass of information before deciding if it wants to pursue an injunction against a blockade preventing access to the so-called Sacred Headwaters of the Klappan area.
The company was to ask the B.C. Supreme Court Aug. 31 for the injunction so crews and equipment can fix a road leading to locations where it wants to drill for coal bed methane natural gas.
A group of Tahltan called the Klabona Keepers first blocked the entrance to the road Aug. 21, leading Shell to file for the injunction.
The Klabona Keepers, along with a growing collection of international environmental groups, say the Klappan is too environmentally sensitive to allow any drilling.
“We received a large amount of information from the defence counsel late yesterday afternoon and our own counsel then sought an adjournment with the agreement of all parties,” says Shell official Larry Lalonde Aug. 31. “We’re now in the process of reviewing that information before deciding where we are to go from there.”
He said there’s no fixed date as to when Shell has to make a decision about what to do.
“What this is is an adjournment in general. Either party can return to court after giving three days notice,” said Lalonde.
Lalonde did acknowledge that Shell does have a deadline of sorts in the Klappan – its window to do work in streams ends Sept. 15 because of environmental concerns.
“But that’s a matter that’s now being discussed as part of the legal process. It is being reviewed,” said Lalonde.
He estimated there’s about 100 days of work to make the road into the Klappan passable enough for the kind of drilling equipment it wants to bring in. Heavy spring runoff severely damaged sections of the road.
The in-stream work would take place at the start of the construction phase, Lalonde said.
The Klabona Keepers and environmental groups, who call the Klappan the “Sacred Headwaters” because it contains the beginnings of the Nass, Sktine and Skeena rivers, say they are keeping a close eye on Shell.
“Our resolve to protect our Sacred Headwaters is stronger than ever,” said Oscar Dennis, a Klabona Keeper.
Will Horter from the Victoria-based public advocacy group called the Dogwood Initiative, thinks Shell was also reacting to a letter from 13 environmental groups telling the company to walk away from the Klappan.
“This was not going to be a regional dispute. It was going to be a regional issue, a provincial issue, a national issue and an international issue. We had plans in place,” said Horter.
Horter added Shell may also be realizing it doesn’t have majority support from the Tahltan for its plans.
That sentiment was echoed in Smithers Friday during a mass demonstration where over 200 Northwesterners marched through the streets in support of the blockade.
Skeena Bulkley Valley MP Nathan Cullen addressed the crowd, calling on Prime Minister Stephen Harper to act in the interest of Northwest communities.
“This has got a momentum that I haven’t seen before,” said Cullen. “[CBM extraction] has huge potential of harm to fish, and that’s what the Fisheries Act is there to protect us from. The environment minister is going to hear about this from us very soon... as soon as we can get the thrust of Parliament going.”
Shell first went into the Klappan in 2004, drilling three holes which provided enough indication of the presence of coal bed methane that it wanted to go back.
Lalonde maintains that this is only a small exploration and that Shell has had a minimal impact on the environment since their original exploration in 2004. “When we originally drilled in 2004 we drilled in previously disturbed locations.”
and used existing roads and rail beds. The sites were disturbed from coal mining in the 1950’s and 70’s,” he said adding that their plan is to continue to use pre-disturbed areas and existing roads.
According to Lalonde several environmental studies on plants, wildlife and fish have been done in the past.
However the Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition (SWCC) feels very strongly that drilling in the headwaters “could be the final poison pill for the several varieties of salmon and wildlife” in the Skeena according to one of the founders of the SWCC Shannon McPhail.
“The risk we are facing far outweighs the benefits — zero per cent of the profits will go back in to our economy,” McPhail said. “We are talking about thousands of wells and they are creating an industrial wasteland in our headwaters.”
Lalonde countered by saying that they only plan to reenter the original three drill sites to see if “extracting the gas is viable and will flow” at this time and adds that they only have a tenure for 14 wells.
“We need to find out if the gas will flow and we are looking to see if there is water associated with the gas,” Lalonde said.
If there is water he said Shell has made environmental promises to the Tahltan nation and will keep them.
“Any water produced from the coal will not be discharged in to the water.”
However, McPhail isn’t buying into it and said while she originally came into this issue in support of gas exploration, she was quickly converted when a Shell representative couldn’t answer direct environmental questions.
“I thought I would be nipping the tree huggers in the bud so I took someone to a meeting who was really savvy. He asked a few really simple questions and the answers that were given were basically: we are aware of the risks but we are willing to take them. Water flows down stream and we as residents of the Stikine should be very concerned,” McPhail said.
Tahltan pressure in early 2005 caused Shell to leave the area and abandon any plans for field work in 2005 or 2006.
It ramped up its plans this spring through a series of meetings which ended with the blockade after Shell announced it was going back into the Klappan.
“I don’t think we fully understand yet what the full longer-term impacts are,” said Gerald Amos with the Headwaters Initiative in Terrace who attended the Smithers demonstration. “Unfortunately, when a community says “no” it’s made out to be a number of activists, but, particularly here today in Smithers, it’s not just one component of the community, it’s a diverse and great number of people with grave concerns.
The company was to ask the B.C. Supreme Court Aug. 31 for the injunction so crews and equipment can fix a road leading to locations where it wants to drill for coal bed methane natural gas.
A group of Tahltan called the Klabona Keepers first blocked the entrance to the road Aug. 21, leading Shell to file for the injunction.
The Klabona Keepers, along with a growing collection of international environmental groups, say the Klappan is too environmentally sensitive to allow any drilling.
“We received a large amount of information from the defence counsel late yesterday afternoon and our own counsel then sought an adjournment with the agreement of all parties,” says Shell official Larry Lalonde Aug. 31. “We’re now in the process of reviewing that information before deciding where we are to go from there.”
He said there’s no fixed date as to when Shell has to make a decision about what to do.
“What this is is an adjournment in general. Either party can return to court after giving three days notice,” said Lalonde.
Lalonde did acknowledge that Shell does have a deadline of sorts in the Klappan – its window to do work in streams ends Sept. 15 because of environmental concerns.
“But that’s a matter that’s now being discussed as part of the legal process. It is being reviewed,” said Lalonde.
He estimated there’s about 100 days of work to make the road into the Klappan passable enough for the kind of drilling equipment it wants to bring in. Heavy spring runoff severely damaged sections of the road.
The in-stream work would take place at the start of the construction phase, Lalonde said.
The Klabona Keepers and environmental groups, who call the Klappan the “Sacred Headwaters” because it contains the beginnings of the Nass, Sktine and Skeena rivers, say they are keeping a close eye on Shell.
“Our resolve to protect our Sacred Headwaters is stronger than ever,” said Oscar Dennis, a Klabona Keeper.
Will Horter from the Victoria-based public advocacy group called the Dogwood Initiative, thinks Shell was also reacting to a letter from 13 environmental groups telling the company to walk away from the Klappan.
“This was not going to be a regional dispute. It was going to be a regional issue, a provincial issue, a national issue and an international issue. We had plans in place,” said Horter.
Horter added Shell may also be realizing it doesn’t have majority support from the Tahltan for its plans.
That sentiment was echoed in Smithers Friday during a mass demonstration where over 200 Northwesterners marched through the streets in support of the blockade.
Skeena Bulkley Valley MP Nathan Cullen addressed the crowd, calling on Prime Minister Stephen Harper to act in the interest of Northwest communities.
“This has got a momentum that I haven’t seen before,” said Cullen. “[CBM extraction] has huge potential of harm to fish, and that’s what the Fisheries Act is there to protect us from. The environment minister is going to hear about this from us very soon... as soon as we can get the thrust of Parliament going.”
Shell first went into the Klappan in 2004, drilling three holes which provided enough indication of the presence of coal bed methane that it wanted to go back.
Lalonde maintains that this is only a small exploration and that Shell has had a minimal impact on the environment since their original exploration in 2004. “When we originally drilled in 2004 we drilled in previously disturbed locations.”
and used existing roads and rail beds. The sites were disturbed from coal mining in the 1950’s and 70’s,” he said adding that their plan is to continue to use pre-disturbed areas and existing roads.
According to Lalonde several environmental studies on plants, wildlife and fish have been done in the past.
However the Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition (SWCC) feels very strongly that drilling in the headwaters “could be the final poison pill for the several varieties of salmon and wildlife” in the Skeena according to one of the founders of the SWCC Shannon McPhail.
“The risk we are facing far outweighs the benefits — zero per cent of the profits will go back in to our economy,” McPhail said. “We are talking about thousands of wells and they are creating an industrial wasteland in our headwaters.”
Lalonde countered by saying that they only plan to reenter the original three drill sites to see if “extracting the gas is viable and will flow” at this time and adds that they only have a tenure for 14 wells.
“We need to find out if the gas will flow and we are looking to see if there is water associated with the gas,” Lalonde said.
If there is water he said Shell has made environmental promises to the Tahltan nation and will keep them.
“Any water produced from the coal will not be discharged in to the water.”
However, McPhail isn’t buying into it and said while she originally came into this issue in support of gas exploration, she was quickly converted when a Shell representative couldn’t answer direct environmental questions.
“I thought I would be nipping the tree huggers in the bud so I took someone to a meeting who was really savvy. He asked a few really simple questions and the answers that were given were basically: we are aware of the risks but we are willing to take them. Water flows down stream and we as residents of the Stikine should be very concerned,” McPhail said.
Tahltan pressure in early 2005 caused Shell to leave the area and abandon any plans for field work in 2005 or 2006.
It ramped up its plans this spring through a series of meetings which ended with the blockade after Shell announced it was going back into the Klappan.
“I don’t think we fully understand yet what the full longer-term impacts are,” said Gerald Amos with the Headwaters Initiative in Terrace who attended the Smithers demonstration. “Unfortunately, when a community says “no” it’s made out to be a number of activists, but, particularly here today in Smithers, it’s not just one component of the community, it’s a diverse and great number of people with grave concerns.
