Lheidli T’enneh insisting Enbridge reroutes gas pipeline following 2018 explosion

Lheidli T’enneh Chief Dolleen Logan was joined by elders and council members to provide an update on the lawsuit with Enbridge that was started after the company’s gas pipeline exploded about 500 meters away from the Fort George No.2 Indian Reserve.

Enbridge’s pipeline exploded on October 9, 2018 on the reserve that is located about 13 km northeast of Prince George, it burnt several hectares of land while traumatizing many nearby residents for years to come.

LTFN Lawyer, Malcolm Macpherson says the discussions that have occurred since the devastating incident have been unproductive.

“We’re at the stage where we’re finalizing the document exchange between Enbridge and Lheidli T’enneh, once that occurs the next step would be an examination for discovery, so that’s generally where we’re at but it’s been three years and the discussions with Enbridge have been unfruitful from the perspective of a reasonable resolution that ensures the safety of the nation as well as other matter such as economics,” explained Macpherson.

Lheidli T’enneh is now seeking a ministerial order to re-route the Enbridge pipeline out of the community on the basis of public safety and reconciliation.

Currently, the pipeline runs about 1.5 kilometers through the reserve and is routed directly under a school bus route.

Macpherson notes that lawsuits do take years, and the pandemic slowed down many of the necessary processes, however, he is still concerned over the lack of action taken to protect nearby residents from this happening again.

“Enbridge purports to run world-class hydrocarbon infrastructure transportation corridors. The Lheidli T’enneh did not experience any such standard on October 9, 2018. By contrast, they experienced pandemonium,” he added.

According to LTFN, Enbridge failed to provide the community members with an adequate emergency response, an explanation of the cause, or further plans or precautions in relation to the pipeline.

Elder Phyllis Seymour watched the explosion occur from her living room, and she took it upon herself to pick up many of the residents without their own vehicles and get them out of the community.

“I had to load a lot of members into my van because a lot of them didn’t have vehicles to get out. I was then knocking door-to-door telling members to leave the reserve,” she said, “and the noise, I’ll never forget the noise. It was so loud and the heat from the explosion was very very hot.”

Seymour says she believes the traumatic experience caused her to have an anxiety attack.

Meanwhile, Chief Dolleen Logan says many other community members are still dealing with the after-effects of the explosion.

“The anxiety level is high. I know a few are having migraines, we’ve been working on an emergency plan. The only emergency plan we have right now is boats, so if something happened again we would use boats, and Enbridge did offer to put in a helipad but we would have to get out own helicopter, our own pilot. Our members, the youth, the children some of them are still in therapy over what happened,” stated Chief Logan.

Enbridge has since responded to today’s (Tuesday) announcement with the following statement:

“Enbridge values our relationship with the Lheidli T’enneh First Nation, and we are committed to continuing to work with leadership and the community on strengthening that relationship.

Following the Shelley incident, we undertook a comprehensive pipeline integrity program on our natural gas pipeline system in B.C. to significantly improve pipeline safety. This was the most aggressive integrity program ever undertaken in B.C. It included increased pipeline inspections, enhanced criteria to evaluate pipeline inspection data and improvements to the scheduling of proactive maintenance work. At Enbridge, our goal is to continuously improve the safety of our pipeline systems and we are committed to ensuring that happens.

Enbridge has been working cooperatively with Indigenous communities throughout British Columbia for more than 60 years and has strong relationships with many Indigenous communities near our pipeline system. We continue to remain focused on building and maintaining respectful relationships, engaging Indigenous groups over the lifecycle of our natural gas assets.

As always, we are happy to meet with the Lheidli T’enneh First Nation or any government agency to discuss the safety of the pipeline system or any other matter, including the small segments of pipeline that traverse their reserve.”