Shell under fire at public meeting

Shell Canada found themselves on the defensive, as a presentation in Smithers last Wednesday drew approximately 50 residents single-mindedly opposed to coalbed methane extraction in the Klappan Valley.

The oil and gas company was invited to offer council an update on their activities and answer to the on-going worries of communities.

Shell is still in the early stage of developing an exploration program to determine whether they can produce a viable gas operation throughout a sensitive ecosystem known as the Sacred Headwaters of the Nass, Skeena and Skeena rivers. The 400,000 hectare tenure lies exclusively within the traditional territory of the Tahltan First Nation.

Shell’s Klappan commercial manager Kathy Penney said the company’s priorities for 2008 are to repair the Eaulue Lake road and an abandoned railway severely damaged by last year’s flooding, and test two or three wells drilled in 2004 to determine whether gas will actually flow. The third and “key” priority is to discover whether the wells will produce the signature toxic waste water of coalbed methane extraction.

If produced during the exploration stage, Penney said every ounce of the water will be transported to treatment facilities by truck. In the anticipated production stage, commencing 2017, the water will be stored in deep underground well chambers.

“We have committed several years ago to the Tahltan that we will not in any way discharge water to the surface, streams, lakes or fresh water bodies,” said Penney.

Penney answered to concerns that Shell’s operation will mirror the Powder River Basin, a controversial region in Wyoming where more than 7,000 wells, drilled by numerous different companies, are blamed for an environmental catastrophe.

“One of the reasons the Powder River was so poorly developed was because there were a number of operators down there. They didn’t have to collaborate... they all built their own roads and they all disposed of their produced water in an unacceptable way. We have the whole tenure here. We have the resources to do this right with partners in the region.

Shell hammered on their commitment to sustainable development throughout the meeting, saying the company has and will work in collaboration with stakeholders, and in partnership with local suppliers, workers and contractors through all stages of the project. Penney noted Shell is a technology-based company with its own research labs, and is a company big enough to invest in new technologies as needed. It can also help any number of mining outfits in the region with sustainable development on their own projects.

“We can be a game changer in this area,” she said. “We want to be a leader in the area for promoting good sustainable development practices with other industries.”

“We know this is a very important area to a lot of people. We are committed to protecting the watershed we’re working in. Not only are we required to do it by law... we want to prove to our stakeholders that we would be respectful partners in the long term.”

The gallery wasn’t sold.

A muffled jeer swept through the hall as Shell admitted to never have extracted coalbed methane in any of their international operations.

“That scares the hell out of me,” said a gallery member and former worker in the mining industry.

“If this is a pilot project, there should be another place to do this rather than on the headwaters.”

Councillor Bill Goodacre grilled Penney on how many wells the company expects to drill, but Penney said she couldn’t answer that until the development process was complete. A member of the gallery called this a contradiction to Shell’s claim of transparency. He said if the company is able to produce a timeline for a 2017 startup, they would certainly have a “ball park” figure for the number of wells.

Wet’suwet’en chief Alphonse Gagnon (Kloum Khun) was one of several First Nations leaders in attendance, and like many members of the gallery he challenged Shell’s claims for transparency and collaboration based on Shell’s involvement in Alberta’s oil sands, as well as their 2007 injunction in Vancouver’s BC Supreme Court to have Elders of the Iskut and Telegraph communities forcibly removed from a road block and arrested.

“My disbelief for your happiness with how you’re conducting yourselves is alarming,” Gagnon said.

“It’s a slap in the face.”

Smithers Mayor Jim Davidson asked the Shell delegation to appreciate the region’s economic and cultural dependance on fisheries and outfitting.

“You must understand the questions [the people] are asking are all related. We are inextricably tied to our fresh water. If you can hear what the people are saying, it’s that this is the primary issue.”