IN THE NEWS / Group Still Fighting To Delay Alliance Pipeline Project
Seeking injunction: Project's assessment 'not proper, lawful'
By CAROL HOWES
The Financial Post
The environmental group Rocky Mountain Ecosystem Coalition has filed two applications with the Federal Court of Canada to delay construction of the $4-billion Alliance Pipeline project.
The group is asking the court for an injunction to halt construction of the 3,500-kilometre pipeline, claiming it has not undergone a "proper and lawful environmental assessment."
The group is vehemently opposed to the project, which underwent an extensive hearing before the National Energy Board last year. The pipeline will ship 1.3-billion cubic feet a day of natural gas from northeastern British Columbia to Chicago beginning in late 1999.
The coalition tried unsuccessfully last fall to have the NEB re-open the hearing into the pipeline based on recent court decisions that widened the scope of federal environmental assessments. In its filing with the federal court, the group has requested judicial reviews of the NEB decision, which gave its final approval of the project last month, and similar approvals by the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans and the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration.
The coalition argues the two latter bodies failed to exercise their jurisdiction required under the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act by relying on the NEB's environmental assessment, rather than doing their own.
The NEB's study concluded that no significant environmental impact would occur if the project was approved.
"In the final analysis, the federal environmental assessment process pursuant to the CEAA is not yet complete," said Mike Sawyer, executive director of the coalition.
He said as an example of the poor environmental assessment process, during the 77-day hearing before the NEB, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans failed to participate, despite an invitation to do so.
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