The company behind the Coastal GasLink gas pipeline project in northern B.C. has received a whopping $346,000-fine from the B.C. government for environmental deficiencies and providing false and misleading information.
According to the Ministry of Environment, Coastal GasLink Pipeline Ltd. failed to meet conditions of its environmental assessment certificate. In a Thursday statement, it said compliance officers found inadequate erosion and sediment control during several inspections along the pipeline route in April and May last year.
The company also gave false and misleading information last October as well in relation to maintenance inspection records, the province found. That cost Coastal GasLink $6,000, while the erosion control matter cost $340,000.
“As a result of continued concerns, the Environmental Assessment Office has prioritized the CGL project for compliance monitoring, with nearly 100 inspections by air and ground since the project started in 2019,” B.C.’s statement reads.
“These inspections have led to the EAO issuing 59 warnings, 30 orders – including 13 stop-work orders – and more than $800,000 in fines.”
When completed, the 670-kilometre Coastal GasLink pipeline will transport natural gas from northeastern B.C. to a liquefied natural gas facility in coastal Kitimat, where it will be exported to global markets.
The project is permitted under Canadian law, but does not have the blessing of Wet’suwet’en Nation’s hereditary chiefs, whose unceded territory it crosses. The proposal has been subject to repeated nationwide protests for years.
Coastal GasLink declined to answer any questions from Global News about its track record or the fines. Instead, it referred to an online statement claiming the erosion control issues took place prior to the signing of a compliance agreement with B.C. in July 2022, while the false and misleading information was an “unintentional reporting error.”
It said it regretted that error and took immediate action to address all other deficiencies brought to its attention.
“Coastal GasLink respects the role our regulators have in upholding the high regulatory standards we are committed to meeting,” it wrote. “Those high standards matter to Indigenous and local communities, to the people of British Columbia, and they matter to us.”
According to the company, the pipeline is more than 94 per cent complete and on track for mechanical completion at the end of the year.
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