Environmental violations being ignored by B.C.

As repeat environmental offenders go, Progress Energy Canada Ltd. may top the list. Over the years, the Calgary-based subsidiary of Malaysian state-owned corporation Petronas has built one unlicensed dam after another in B.C.’s Peace River region. The dams were built to trap massive amounts of freshwater used in natural gas fracking operations.

Many of those dams violated key provincial water laws and dam safety regulations. And, in two extraordinary cases, they also violated B.C.’s Environmental Assessment Act.

But here’s the rub. To date, the company hasn’t faced a single fine or been charged with wrongdoing by provincial authorities, even though violations of water and dam safety regulations as well as the EAA can result in hefty fines and even criminal charges.

Progress Energy’s two most egregious dams range in height from five- to seven-storey buildings. Both qualified as “major projects” under the act, meaning they were supposed to be referred to the Environmental Assessment Office well before being built. An EAO assessment would then have determined whether the company would be allowed to proceed.

But Progress Energy never submitted its plans. It built the dams and operated them in obscurity until one brave soul with knowledge of the extent of the company’s activities tipped off the B.C. office of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

The CCPA subsequently filed Freedom of Information requests with the EAO and B.C.’s Oil and Gas Commission, which allowed Progress Energy and its competitors to build dozens of unlicensed dams. Those requests turned up many disturbing facts including:

Evidence of many dams built without spillways or with poorly built spillways. (Spillways provide safe exit points for water from overfilling reservoirs. A reservoir that overtops a dam in the absence of a spillway can trigger a catastrophic dam failure.)

Details on the two giant dams in question, including a document showing that serious remediation work had to be done at one dam only a year after it was built because of signs that it was failing.

And then perhaps the biggest revelation of all — that Progress Energy, years after the fact, asked the EAO to rule retroactively that its two largest dams didn’t have to undergo environmental assessments.

Well, Progress Energy got what it wanted. Unreported until only recently, in July the EAO ruled that the two massive dams — referred to as “illegal works” in one government email — wouldn’t be subject to lengthy and potentially embarrassing environmental assessments.

Not only that, but documents released by the “neutral” provincial environmental regulator show that at least one EAO official leaned toward granting the exemption even before Progress Energy had formally submitted its request.

How can this be?

The answer can probably be distilled down to three words and then three letters — Liquefied Natural Gas or LNG. Successive provincial governments have bent over backwards to court investment in potential LNG facilities by petro-giants like Petronas.

Former premier Christy Clark moved heaven and earth to get a major project off the ground, offering would-be LNG producers a suite of subsidies. Premier John Horgan followed suit, helped along by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Their efforts paid off with the formal announcement in early October that the LNG Canada project will proceed, led by Royal Dutch Shell and several partners, chief among them Petronas.

If you want to understand why repeat offender Progress Energy hasn’t been charged, look no further.

With provincial government subsidies to the Shell-led project slated to run into the billions of dollars during the project’s lifespan, one thing is clear: B.C. wants more natural gas production, whatever the costs.