Booms leaking diesel, contaminating beaches in Heiltsuk Territory
October 25, 2016 (Bella Bella) – Crews continue to attempt to recover spilled diesel from contaminated beaches near Gale Creek/'Qvúqvái today as diesel has been discovered leaking from booms that broke Saturday and washed ashore.
Cleanup and salvage efforts have been hampered by storms on the British Columbia coast, where a sunken tug continues to leak fuel 11 days after it ran aground near Bella Bella, in the Great Bear Rainforest.
Matt Woodruff, information officer with the industry-funded unified command group that is handling the operation, said fuel spill containment booms failed at one point, allowing slicks to escape from around the grounded tug, Nathan E. Stewart.
Since the Liberals formed government last November, Enbridge and Northern Gateway Pipeline have lobbied Ottawa an astounding 86 times, federal lobbying reports reveal.
Fifty-one of those meetings have taken place since August — which, funnily enough, is around the same time Prime Minister Justin Trudeau started backtracking on his commitment to ban oil tankers on B.C.’s north coast, a policy that would leave Enbridge’s Northern Gateway pipeline proposal dead in the water.
Since the Liberals formed government last November, Enbridge and Northern Gateway Pipeline have lobbied Ottawa an astounding 86 times, federal lobbying reports reveal.
Fifty-one of those meetings have taken place since August — which, funnily enough, is around the same time Prime Minister Justin Trudeau started backtracking on his commitment to ban oil tankers on B.C.’s north coast, a policy that would leave Enbridge’s Northern Gateway pipeline proposal dead in the water.
HEILTSUK IN SHOCK AS CRITICAL BARRIER
CONTAINING SPILL BREAKS FREE
Bella Bella (October 22, 2016) –– Heiltsuk Chief Marilyn Slett says her community is in a state of shock today as spilled diesel oil has broken free of barriers to contain it and weather worsens.
OTTAWA, Oct. 21, 2016 /CNW/ - Assembly of First Nations (AFN) National Chief Perry Bellegarde will visit Treaty 8 territory threatened by the proposed Site C Dam in northern British Columbia. On Saturday, October 22 on behalf of the AFN, National Chief will stand with Treaty 8 First Nations in opposing the project. Treaty 8 First Nations are currently taking legal action to overturn federal approvals of the controversial hydroelectric project.
A new U.S. coal producer has struck a deal to ship thermal coal by rail through Metro Vancouver.
Lighthouse Resources, the operator of mines in Wyoming and Montana, said it has begun shipments of coal out of Westshore Terminals in Delta to power plants in South Korea after abandoning its push to build a new export terminal in Oregon, where it faced strong opposition.
Is Big Oil trying to game Alberta’s royalty structure with their risky pipeline proposal?
Growing up, I spent a fair amount of time doing puzzles. I liked the simplicity and comfort of knowing each piece had its place and, given time and concentration, I could assemble the image of a unicorn or kittens in a basket that had originally caught my eye.
A little more than a year ago, B.C. activist Ingmar Lee told a reporter that the petroleum-hauling vessel Nathan E. Stewart was a “disaster waiting to happen.”
Early Wednesday morning, that fear was realized when the American-owned articulated tug and barge ran aground near Bella Bella. Although the barge was empty after dropping off its cargo in Alaska, the tugboat began leaking fuel into the water, threatening the traditional clam fisheries of the Heiltsuk First Nation.
“It’s unfortunately a terrible thing to see it sunk there,” Lee said Thursday.
