Jackie Allen wants to slow down water extraction from Sikanni
In response to an interview on CBC Daybreak with Minister Steve Thompson, Jackie Allen spoke of experiences she had encountered while operating the campsite at the Sikanni River.
“I found it disconcerting that Mr. Thompson did not have those numbers available to you at the time of the interview.”
Mrs. Allen said this was the case for many people because there are two different ways to calculate the use of water by industry – one is a permitting process, these are issued by the Oil and Gas Commission, the other is regulatory approvals through the ministry of the environment, headed by Thomson.
Allen as done her own calculations to find out how much water was being used by the oil and gas companies, taken from the Sikanni River.
“I got out my pencil and calculator and pulled up the database that the Oil and gas Commission makes available to the public on the water permits that they issue. That’s different to the water licences that Stephen Thompson’s ministry issues. I was only able to make use of the data available to the public -and that is what we call section 8 – that’s a difference between the water licences that Stephen Thompson issues.”
There are short-term water permits and long-term water permits.
Mrs. Allen looked at the permits issued to oil and gas companies. “It’s available for anyone to look for themselves and I found out as of Friday, shortly after your interview (with Minister Thompson), that there were 860 permits of the short-term nature the oil and gas commission has active in their database.”
After doing a calculation to change cubic metres to litres she found that the oil and gas companies were removing 17.5 billion litres of water from the lakes, rivers and streams of northern British Columbia.
Allen said a couple of section 8 applications had been made by oil and gas companies for the Sikanni Chief River “where we live and about a ‘city block’ away from where our property line is. I’m watching them trucking the water away and now the move is to pipe water out of the river under section 8.
They are using a permit dated September 20th for Progress Energy, a total of 350,000 m³ once again if we add some zeros you get 350,000,000 Litres that can be extracted from the Sikanni River right next door to where I live. I listen to pumps pumping the water out of that river 24 hours a day and I’ve been listening to that for 45 days and there’s no end in sight. The permit is in effect until May 15th, 2013.”
Allen said she would like to see the water licensing slow down a little bit the breaks until science catches up and let science catch up with the level of water withdrawal.
Allen wants to know where the water ends up in the pipeline. “As far as we know it could end up in Alberta,” she said.
Another of her concerns is that formally trucks have transported the water, and now pipelines are being developed to do that. “And that’s not very visible, as to how much water is being extracted and where it is going and then it gets pumped back into the ground with chemicals and sand I don’t I don’t believe we really understand the implications of that.”
Follow
Recent Comments