Enbridge drops plan for pipeline through Flamborough
Could revive application for a 10-km pipeline through Spencer Creek
Environmentalists are celebrating a decision by Enbridge to withdraw a controversial application to build a10-kilometre natural gas pipeline through rural Hamilton.
But the natural gas giant says the project will be revisited in the future when there is “sufficient need” for what it argues is the cleanest-burning fossil fuel available.
The $206-million pipeline planned in Flamborough — including through eco-sensitive Beverly Swamp and Spencer Creek — sparked environmental protest locally but also from climate activists across Canada.
Local groups like Hamilton 350 had planned to join Environmental Defence Canada and the provincial Clean Air Alliance in opposing the project at an Ontario Energy Board hearing.
The arrival of COVID-19 put the process on hold in May — and Thursday, Enbridge announced in a letter it was withdrawing the application because “there is no longer a need for the project” right now because of a pandemic drop in fuel demand.
At one point, construction was on track for spring 2021.
The company will “review” conditions next year to determine whether to refile the pipeline application, Enbridge spokesperson Andrea Stass said Friday.
Environmental groups argued public opposition played a role in the company’s decision.
A shout-out Friday to supporters of the Ontario Clean Air Alliance was labelled “We took down Enbridge’s pipeline!”
The email blast argued “emails, calls and letters had a big impact.”
“There was certainly a good amount of opposition,” said Don McLean, an organizer of the climate action group Hamilton 350 who recently led a public tour of the pipeline route through Beverly Swamp.
“I believe the support we saw from the city and (Hamilton) conservation authority also made a difference.”
In February, city council voted to ask the Ontario Energy Board to consider climate impacts of the project, while the conservation authority opted to oppose pipeline easement requests until after seeing the results of an ecological im
pact study along the route. (That study is now done and the conservation authority plans to release it after a peer review.)
Local environmentalists pointed to the danger of adding new pipelines across Spencer Creek and the sensitive Beverly Swamp, the source for three different area creeks.
Enbridge has pointed out there is an existing pipeline cor
ridor through the area and that natural gas is one of the cleanest-burning fossil fuels on the market.
The company said the project would spur $686,000 in annual tax revenue for Hamilton and create construction jobs.
McLean acknowledged the company has said it could resurrect the project if natural gas demand recovers — but if that happens “We’ll be ready.”
Regardless, the veteran environmental activist argued the economic prospects for new pipelines are “gradually deteriorating” in the face of government climate change policies.
“I hope that we are starting to see the backside of fossil fuel dependency,” McLean said.
Opponents argued against the Enbridge pipeline expansion as incompatible with efforts to cut carbon emissions and fight climate change — but also because they expected the pipeline to flow controversial “fracked” gas.
Fracking refers to the method of extracting natural gas via hydraulic fracturing, the highpressure injection of liquid into the ground to shatter rock.
There is a shale gas boom in Pennsylvania, one of many sources for Enbridge’s pipeline network.
“I hope that we are starting to see the backside of fossil fuel dependency.”
DON MCLEAN
HAMILTON 350 ORGANIZER