Scientific review of fracking doesn’t go far enough

Just two days before B.C. Energy Minister Michelle Mungall announced a completely inadequate “independent scientific review” of fracking in our province, an international team of scientists issued a stark warning about the human health risks associated with the natural gas industry’s rampant use of this brute-force technology.

“Our examination … uncovered no evidence that fracking can be practised in a manner that does not threaten human health,” concluded the scientists who were affiliated either with the Concerned Health Professionals of New York or the Nobel Peace Prize-winning group, Physicians for Social Responsibility.

Tellingly, the provincial government’s just-announced review will expressly not investigate the human health impacts of fracking.

Fracking involves pumping immense quantities of water, sand and chemicals underground with such force that earthquakes are frequently triggered. Northeast B.C. has the dubious distinction of being home to some of the most powerful fracking operations on earth, with much of the damage occurring on Indigenous territories.

The evidence reviewed by the scientists included nearly 1,300 peer-reviewed articles. That fact alone tells you something. The “science” on fracking is already in. Here’s just a smattering of what it says:

■ People living near gas drilling and fracking operations are more prone to asthma.

■ Pregnant women living near drilled and fracked gas wells face elevated risks of giving birth to newborns with congenital heart defects.

■ Workers servicing gas-well sites are exposed to elevated levels of silica, diesel exhaust and other compounds that raise concerns about higher incidence of occupational lung diseases, including cancer.

For Indigenous people living in fracking zones, the health risks may be even greater.

A preliminary study published in January by health scientists at the University of Montreal found that pregnant women in northeast B.C. have elevated levels of benzene metabolites (benzene is a carcinogen) in their blood. The Indigenous women in the study had levels six times higher than the Canadian average.

For these reasons and others, the organizations we represent and 14 others called last fall for a full public inquiry into all aspects of fracking. We made that call because of abundant evidence that fracking in northeast B.C. was intensifying and that B.C.’s energy industry regulator, the Oil and Gas Commission, was failing to provide reasonable checks on the fossil fuel industry.

In issuing our collective call we said then — and we restate now — that a scientific review will not deliver meaningful changes. The people who live in the northeast, who drink the region’s water, who breathe its air, deserve nothing less than a public inquiry into all aspects of the operations. It must also fully address the question of free, prior and informed consent, a cornerstone of the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which Mungall and her cabinet colleagues are tasked by Premier John Horgan to implement.

Now, sadly, we have even more reason to oppose the review.

The review will be extremely narrowly focused on earthquakes triggered by fracking operations and on what methane may be vented to the atmosphere during the fracking process. The panel is to make “recommendations” on how to “minimize” these risks.

Troublingly, at least one senior member of Mungall’s ministry forewarned the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers about how narrow the panel’s mandate would be. Weeks before the announcement, CAPP learned the review would not examine the human health impacts of fracking or look at the industry’s ballooning greenhouse gas emissions. CAPP also got generous advance notice to begin lining up its witnesses.

The public interest is clearly not served here. Instead, the interests of an industry with a vested stake in maintaining the status quo is.

British Columbians deserve better. What’s needed are comprehensive changes to public policy. A public inquiry could provide a needed roadmap. The government’s science panel most certainly will not.

Amy Lubik is a health researcher with the B.C. Chapter of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment ; Ben Parfitt is a resource policy analyst with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives; Grand Chief Stewart Phillip is president of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs.