Pipeline owners warned over environmental violations, which carry maximum penalty of $1m

CHETWYND, B.C. — A gas pipeline’s owners have been warned after inspectors said land was cleared before potential bat hibernation sites were fully surveyed, an environmental violation which could incur a hefty fine.

Owners of the Prince Rupert Gas Transmission (PRGT) pipeline, running through near Chetwynd, has received a warning letter from the BC Environmental Assessment Office for “failing to properly mark environmentally sensitive areas” and failing to fully survey potential bat hibernation sites and roosts before clearing land last fall. 

The warning letter was sent to the pipeline’s owners, U.S.-based Western LNG and Nisg̱a’a Lisims Government, on March 3rd and published on March 14th.

It’s for apparent violations first noted during an inspection on October 2nd, 2024, when a compliance and enforcement office with the assessment office visited pipeline construction sites on Nisg̱a’a territory, northwest of Terrace, B.C. 

The provincial officer noted workers cleared land before they “identified the presence of big brown or silver-haired bats emerging and in the vicinity” and concluded “these findings provide evidence of non-compliance” with required surveys.

Silver-haired bats are listed as endangered in Canada, due to dramatic population declines in recent years.

In its warning letter, the province noted the maximum penalty for failing to comply with an environmental assessment certificate is $1 million and, on subsequent convictions, up to $2 million for each violation. 

Construction of the 800-kilometre PRGT natural gas pipeline was paused when its environmental assessment certificate expired last November.

B.C.’s new Environment and Parks Minister Tamara Davidson will decide this spring whether or not to grant the project a “substantial start” decision, which would lock in its environmental approval indefinitely and allow construction to resume.

If built, the PRGT line would connect natural gas reserves in B.C.’s northeast — largely extracted by fracking, a water-intensive process that has been linked to earthquakes and human health issues — to a proposed gas liquefaction and export facility, Ksi Lisims LNG, near the mouth of the Nass River close to the Alaska border.

Its name comes from its original route, which was slated to terminate in Prince Rupert.

The pipeline project, which was previously owned by TC Energy, the Calgary-based company that built the contentious Coastal GasLink pipeline, was originally approved in 2014.

TC Energy sold the pipeline to Nisga’a Lisims Government and Texas-based Western LNG last year. The Nisg̱a’a government and Western LNG, along with Calgary-based Rockies LNG, are also partners in the proposed Ksi Lisims LNG facility. 

As pipeline construction began last fall, Hereditary Chiefs from neighbouring Gitanyow Nation burned a benefits agreement they signed with TC Energy and closed its territories to all traffic related to the new pipeline.

A few days later, Indigenous and non-Indigenous groups launched legal action against the project, alleging the BC Energy Regulator broke its own rules to green light construction. That was followed shortly by legal action against the proposed liquefaction plant.