Search A PROGRESSIVE TAKE ON BC ISSUES ABOUT TOPICS AUTHORS ARCHIVE FEATURES Jun 25, 2020 British Columbia’s largest raw log exporters make pitch to deregulate By Ben Parfitt Federal government would do Read more…
Continue readingAuthor: Ben Parfitt
Cowichan Conversations: BC Government Forced To Come Clean On Hundreds of Millions of Dollars In Subsidies To Fossil Fuel Companies.
Highly Respected CCPA Journalist Ben Parfitt For more than two years, the British Columbia government has vigorously fought efforts to compel the release of information on the hundreds of millions of dollars in Read more…
Continue readingCowichan Conversations: Left behind: staggering level of waste at Great Bear Rainforest logging operations, data reveals
IN-DEPTH A controversial timber-pricing system may be to blame as forestry companies log the best and leave the rest Ben Parfitt Nov 30, 2019 8 min read Large numbers of logs are being Read more…
Continue readingB.C. Government Suppressed Details About Potentially Dangerous, Unregulated Fracking Dams
Early last spring, provincial civil servants cut off virtually all communication about what the government knew about a sprawling network of potentially dangerous and unregulated dams in northeast B.C. on the pretext they could not comment because of the impending election. The coordinated effort meant there was virtually no comment until
Continue reading‘Time Bombs’: 92 Fracking Dams Quietly Built Without Permits, B.C. Government Docs Reveal
The number of unlicensed and potentially dangerous dams built in recent years in northeast British Columbia is nearly double what has been reported, according to one of the province’s top water officials. At least 92 unauthorized dams have been built in the region, where natural gas industry fracking operations consume more
Continue readingB.C. Finds Gas Industry Built Numerous Unauthorized Fracking Dams Without Engineering Plans
Originally published by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. More than half of nearly 50 dams that fossil fuel companies built in recent years without first obtaining the proper permits had serious structural problems that could have caused many of them to fail. And now, B.C.’s Oil and Gas Commission (OGC),
Continue readingFracking Company Ordered to Drain Two Unauthorized Dams in B.C.’s Northeast
The provincial government has ordered Progress Energy to drain virtually all of the water trapped behind two massive dams the company built in violation of key provincial regulations. The company was told on October 31 to drain all but 10 per cent of the water stored behind its Town and Lily
Continue readingA Dam Big Problem: Fracking Companies Build Dozens of Unauthorized Dams in B.C.’s Northeast
A subsidiary of Petronas, the Malaysian state-owned petro giant courted by the B.C. government, has built at least 16 unauthorized dams in northern B.C. to trap hundreds of millions of gallons of water used in its controversial fracking operations. The 16 dams are among “dozens” that have been built by Petronas
Continue readingFracking, Earthquakes and Hydro Dams? Don’t Worry, We Have an Understanding.
By Ben Parfitt for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
Efforts by BC Hydro to ban potentially destructive natural gas company fracking operations in the vicinity of its biggest dams fall well short of what an Alberta hydro provider has achie…
Continue readingFracking, Earthquakes and Hydro Dams? Don’t Worry, We Have an Understanding.
By Ben Parfitt for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
Efforts by BC Hydro to ban potentially destructive natural gas company fracking operations in the vicinity of its biggest dams fall well short of what an Alberta hydro provider has achieved, raising questions about why British Columbia isn’t doing more to protect public safety.
Documents obtained through a Freedom of Information (FOI) request by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives show that BC Hydro officials have feared for years that fracking-induced earthquakes could damage its dams and reservoirs.
Senior dam safety officials with the public hydro utility even worried for a time that natural gas companies could drill and frack for gas directly below their Peace River dams, which would kill hundreds if not thousands of people should they fail.
Big Dams and a Big Fracking Problem in B.C.’s Energy-rich Peace River Region
By Ben Parfitt for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
Senior BC Hydro officials have quietly feared for years that earthquakes triggered by natural gas industry fracking operations could damage its Peace River dams, putting hundreds if not thousands of people at risk should the dams fail.
Yet the Crown corporation has said nothing publicly about its concerns, opting instead to negotiate behind the scenes with the provincial energy industry regulator, the BC Oil and Gas Commission (OGC).
To date, those discussions have resulted in only modest “understandings” between the hydro provider and the OGC that would see a halt in the issuance of any new “subsurface rights” allowing companies to drill and frack for natural gas within five kilometres of the Peace River’s two existing dams or an approved third dam on the river, the controversial $9-billion Site C project. Companies already holding such rights, however, would not be subject to the ban.
But once again, none of this is public knowledge. Only after the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives filed a Freedom of Information request with BC Hydro did the Crown corporation disclose its concerns, which focus on the possibility that fracking could trigger earthquakes more powerful than some of its dams are designed to withstand.
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Big Dams and a Big Fracking Problem in B.C.’s Energy-rich Peace River Region
By Ben Parfitt for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
Senior BC Hydro officials have quietly feared for years that earthquakes triggered by natural gas industry fracking operations could damage its Peace River dams, putting hundreds if not …
Continue readingToxic Landslides Polluting Peace River Raise Alarms About Fracking, Site C
Toxic heavy metals, including arsenic, barium, cadmium, lithium and lead, are flowing unchecked into the Peace River following a series of unusual landslides that may be linked to B.C’s natural gas industry fracking operations.
The landslides began n…
Continue readingToxic Landslides Polluting Peace River Raise Alarms About Fracking, Site C
Toxic heavy metals, including arsenic, barium, cadmium, lithium and lead, are flowing unchecked into the Peace River following a series of unusual landslides that may be linked to natural gas industry fracking operations.
The landslides began nearly …
Continue readingB.C. Government Quietly Undercuts Province’s Ability to Feed Itself
If California’s farmers ever run out of the water needed to irrigate their crops, we’ll be in for a rude awakening.
With 70 per cent of British Columbia’s imported fruits and vegetables coming from the sunny U.S. state, any climatic disaster th…
Continue readingB.C. Government Quietly Undercuts Province’s Ability to Feed Itself
If California’s farmers ever run out of the water needed to irrigate their crops, we’ll be in for a rude awakening.
With 70 per cent of British Columbia’s imported fruits and vegetables coming from the sunny U.S. state, any climatic disaster th…
Continue readingEver Wondered Why Site C Rhymes With LNG?
On January 20, BC Hydro issued a press release singing the praises of a new hydro transmission line not far from where preliminary work has begun to build the $9-billion Site C dam.
The release, headlined “New transmission line to power development …
Ever Wondered Why Site C Rhymes With LNG?
On January 20, BC Hydro issued a press release singing the praises of a new hydro transmission line not far from where preliminary work has begun to build the $9-billion Site C dam.
The release, headlined “New transmission line to power development …