This page contains annotated news stories and press releases with commentary about land reform and the democratic process in British Columbia. Our comments are shown in red.
Shell drilling plans attacked
Apr 15, 2008SKEENA NDP MLA Robin Austin says Shell Canada's plans to drill for coalbed methane natural gas in the Klappan area northeast of here aren't worth the risk for the economic benefit.
Referring to the area as the Sacred Headwaters, Austin, in a speech given in the provincial legislature, said the area is the origin of the Skeena, Nass and Stikine rivers.
“All three are also threatened by plans to develop coalbed methane in one of the most crucial and intact ecosystems left in the world,” he said.
“In return for a long-term sustainable industry that has the advantage of preserving the quality of our environment and our drinking water, we would get a poison-filled project that would destroy our environment, pollute our drinking water and employ very few people in the long term,” said Austin.
“It isn't difficult to see why my constituents are furious that they were not consulted about this project before Shell began drilling test wells and why they are adamant that this project not proceed any further.”
Austin's speech drew fire from Bulkley-Valley Stikine Liberal MLA Dennis MacKay in whose riding the Klappan is located.
“To say that we're going to see degradation and that we're going to see contamination of the water — that is bunk,” said MacKay.
Coalbed methane is natural gas located next to underground coal seams. It's kept in place by water, meaning that water has to first be drained away before the gas is released. The idea of pumping potentially lethal water to the surface has environmentalists, native groups and others worried.
But Shell says it won't be releasing water on the surface and will either pump it back into the ground or truck it away for treating.
In the meantime, the Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition has erected an eight-foot by sixteen-foot billboard along Highway 16 west of Smithers to greet Premier Gordon Campbell when he visits the community April 18.
In block lettering it reads “We support sound development. Not coalbed methane.”
Campbell is in Smithers to speak at the Minerals North 2008 convention which begins April 16.
