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.
The MP for St. John's East has a solution to concerns over the higher levels of toxic methylmercury expected from flooding of the Muskrat Falls reservoir: eat less fish.
NDP Leader Earle McCurdy said in an interview with NTV that government should be making it mandatory to clear vegetation and soil from the flooding site at the hydroelectric project, saying "if we can't afford to clear the reservoir, we can't afford to do the project."
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.
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.
Protesters broke into the Muskrat Falls hydroelectric site in Labrador and formed a blockade around it, Nalcor Energy confirmed Saturday.
Nalcor spokeswoman Karen O’Neill said protesters and vehicles entered the work site near Happy Valley-Goose Bay Saturday afternoon, and a blockade of around 150 people formed outside the main entrance.
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.
The protests began Saturday in Labrador, and expanded Monday into government offices
Nine people arrested during protests at the Muskrat Falls site in Labrador were released with conditions Monday.
The six women and three men are charged with disobeying a court order to leave the site, where they were protesting the planned reservoir flooding at the hydroelectric project.
While the protesters have been ordered to stay clear of the entrance to the worksite, they are allowed to be on the other side of the road.
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.
COASTAL FIRST NATIONS RENEWS CALL FOR OIL
TANKER BAN ON BC COAST IN AFTERMATH OF BELLA BELLA SPILL
Vancouver, BC (October 14, 2016) – Coastal First Nations renews its call today for a ban on crude oil tanker traffic and says First Nations must be at the table to determine what went wrong in Thursday’s diesel spill near the Heiltsuk First Nation of Bella Bella, BC.
“We don’t want what happened to us to happen to the people in Dakota,” Piaguaje told teleSUR.
Indigenous groups affected by the contamination of Chevron in Ecuador—led by Humberto Piaguaje—joined the Native Americans protesting the construction of the Dakota Access pipeline in the state of North Dakota in the U.S.
