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May 07 2008 » News Clippings » Houston Today

Northwest Opposes CBM Project

~The Black Press
Merely one in five Northwest residents — 22 per cent — support Shell Canada’s plans for coalbed methane development in the Klappan Valley, according to a McAllister Opinion Research poll released Friday. An overwhelming 50 per cent of people oppose the plan, while 28 per cent are unsure.

The poll was commissioned by the NDP on the prompting of Skeena Bulkley Valley MP Nathan Cullen.

“The people of the Northwest, not some giant, foreign oil company, will decide how to develop our natural resources,” he said.

“I have been hearing increasing concern over the past several years form people who live in the Skeena watershed about Shell’s proposed developments. They’re telling me that this project is not worth the risk to our salmon, water and wildlife.”

Cullen asked for the survey in order to verify what his constituents were telling him. It was drawn from a random sample of 400 residents in the Skeena River watershed in the communities of Smithers, Terrace and Prince Rupert.

In addition to the development’s opposition ratio of roughly two to one, Cullen noted the survey also indicates seven out of 10 respondents are coalbed methane in general should not be developed in wild salmon watersheds.

The oil and gas company is in the early stages of a proposal to extract coalbed methane from an ecologically sensitive area at the headwaters of the Skeena, Bulkley and Stikine Rivers, otherwise known as the Sacred Headwaters to the Tahltan First Nation, whose territory encompasses Shell’s proposed tenure area.

Eight of the 14 coalbed methane wells Shell has licence to drill this season are located in the Skeena watershed.

Shell spokesperson Larry Lalonde downplayed the survey as the result of the company’s own lack of community engagement.

“The dialogue so far has been one-sided against the project,” he said. “We have been consulting for four years with the Tahltan First Nation, [but] in the last one-and-a-half months we’ve stepped up the effort to let [other] communities know how we will be doing this.”

Lalonde suggested community opposition has gotten ahead of the game.

“There’s no risk at this stage. We’re just trying to learn if there’s gas, and if there’s any water produced.”

The project has faced fierce opposition due to the possibility of CBM’s signature toxic wastewater laying in the . Opponents point to Shell’s inexperience with CBM as additional cause for major alarm, despite the company’s assurance of a diligent, ecologically sensitive approach.

“We need to be convinced this project is safe,” said Cullen. “The province must stop Shell’s exploration until residents have strong, scientifically sound information showing wild salmon and our northern lifestyle won’t be harmed down the road.”

The survey was conducted using random digit dialing, between April 17th and 21st and is considered to be accurate to within +/- 4.9%, 19 times out of 20.

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