Kanesatake Mohawks challenge Energy East pipeline application

The Kanesatake Mohawks are challenging the Energy East pipeline application, claiming it’s incomplete because it doesn’t address potential environmental risks the structure would pose as it crosses the Ottawa River.

If regulators accept the application as complete, it would be “the height of irresponsibility,” according to a legal letter filed Monday by the Mohawks’ lawyer to the National Energy Board.

TransCanada, the company behind Energy East, filed its 38,000-page application to the NEB on May 18. But the document contains no technical information about how or where it would cross the Ottawa River, substituting that section of the application with a blank page titled “Placeholder.”

A 2014 study commissioned by TransCanada deemed the Ottawa River crossing a “high risk” proposition. The study, conducted by pipeline consulting firm Entec, concluded that directional drilling required to tunnel the structure under the river would be extremely challenging.

The Mohawks’ legal letter, obtained by the Montreal Gazette, affirms the First Nation’s right to fish and hunt along the river and claims that a rupture or spill from the pipeline would be “catastrophic” to their way of life.

The letter is the latest attempt by the Kanesatake Mohawks to halt construction of the $15.7 billion pipeline. If the NEB accepts TransCanada’s application as complete, the company will cross another milestone in the project, allowing it to begin public hearings on Energy East.

As the Mohawks continue to challenge Energy East, TransCanada submitted the first volume of its impact study on the pipeline’s Quebec route Monday. Though contents of the study aren’t yet public, they don’t include data on environmental risk assessment. That information will be available later this year, according to the company.

About 650 kilometres of the pipeline would pass through Quebec as it links the Alberta oilsands to a terminal in Saint John, New Brunswick. At peak operation, the pipeline would funnel 1.1 million barrels of oil across Canada every day.

“The application is not even close to complete, we need to know exactly what the plans for the Ottawa River are,” said Serge Simon, Grand Chief of the Kanesatake Mohawk Council. “We’re downriver and we worry about our ecosystem, about fish species like the lake sturgeon and blue walleye.”

Asked about the Ottawa River crossing, a representative from TransCanada said studies are ongoing and that the practice of including blank “Placeholder” pages in its application is common in the energy industry.

“It is completely normal and there are going to be changes with the project in terms of routing, in terms of the location of pump stations and things like that,” said Tim Duboyce, a spokesperson for TransCanada. “We’ll continue to consult with indigenous communities and leaders and we’ll make changes to our project as a function of that feedback. What is down on paper right now is not necessarily the final form the project will take.”

TransCanada geologists will survey the Ottawa River crossing, conduct seismic tests and gather other data before adding it to the application.

The NEB, which regulates Canada’s pipeline projects, said it’s reviewing TransCanada’s application to determine whether it can move forward with public hearings on the project.

“TransCanada has communicated to us in February that (it) would have some supplemental filings related to additional reports,” said Marc Drolet, a communications officer with the NEB. “(Reports) containing seasonal environmental surveys … are anticipated to be filed on an as-completed basis during the second half of 2016.”

Grand Chief Simon has been dogged in his opposition to Energy East, enlisting the support of indigenous communities across Canada. In January, the Iroquois caucus — which includes Kanesatake, Kahnwake, Akwesasne, Oneida Nation of the Thames, Six Nations of the Grand River, Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte and Wahta Mohawks — released a statement opposing the pipeline.

Simon says he also has support from Innu nations, the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs and aboriginal communities in British Columbia.

Neither Kanesatake nor Kahnawake will participate in the public consultations on the pipeline as they do not recognize the legitimacy of the process.

Canada has a constitutional obligation to consult with and accommodate indigenous groups affected by a major energy project. But because it delegates this responsibility to the NEB — a body whose members mainly consist of former energy executives — Simon and other indigenous leaders question its objectivity.

“It’s the industry policing the industry,” Simon said. “As far as I’m concerned, that presents a major problem.”

[Top photo:A sign — Don’t spill in our home — protests against the Energy East pipeline. DARIO AYALA / MONTREAL GAZETTE]