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Image: Joey Podlubny/JWN VANCOUVER — A conservation group is suing the British Columbia government for exempting two oilpatch dams from environmental rules years after the dams were built. “It seems like the government was really playing catch-up,” Olivia French, the lawyer handling the lawsuit for the B.C. Sierra Club, said Monday. “Progress Energy acted with a bit of disregard for B.C.’s laws — one of those typical, ‘Ask for forgiveness, not for permission’ sort of positions,” said French. The lawsuit asks that the exemptions given the two dams be revoked. French said the issue is becoming too common in the province’s northern natural gas fields. A spokesman for the B.C. government was not immediately available. A statement of defence has not yet been filed and none of the lawsuit’s claims have been proven in court. Progress Energy is an Alberta company owned by Malaysian oil giant Petronas. The dams were built in 2012 and 2014 to store water used by the company’s fracking operations northwest of Fort St. John, B.C. Both dams met legal criteria to undergo environmental assessments, French said. Provincial law dictates that proposed dams higher than 15 metres must be considered for review. “All the parties […]
