Endangered caribou, birds and frogs among animals threatened by Enbridge pipeline: documents

OTTAWA — Endangered populations of woodland caribou, along with rare types of birds and frogs, are among a list of at least 15 species that face threats from the potential construction of Enbridge's proposed Northern Gateway pipeline from Alberta to British Columbia, reveals newly released government records.

Internal correspondence between the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and Environment Canada warned the project could affect the populations, listed under schedule one of Canada's Species at Risk Act.

Link to internal government notice

Schedule one is considered to be the most serious of three categories under the federal legislation. The designation is issued for species following a scientific evaluation by a committee of government and non-government experts.

Lawyers for Ecojustice, a Canadian environmental law organization, said the correspondence, released to Postmedia News through access to information legislation, raises new questions about the potential impacts of the project and the risks of proposed changes to laws such as the Species At Risk Act that were included in Finance Minister Jim Flaherty's budget implementation legislation, bill C-38.

A spokesman for the Alberta-based energy company that is proposing the 1,200 km pipeline to ship oil from Edmonton to Kitimat, B.C. and send condensate, used to thin petroleum products for transport in pipelines, in the opposite direction, said it wasn't disputing any species listed under the federal legislation.

But the company also told Postmedia News it was working to reduce impacts to species at risk in the $6.6 billion project's design.

"The route selection process includes consideration for avoidance of protected, critical or sensitive habitats and further route refinements may be considered as new species of concern and their habitat are identified," said Todd Nogier, the manager of corporate and western access communications for Enbridge.

"Northern Gateway will contribute toward additional research to help mitigate the effects of the project on the marine, freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems."

The notice about the species at risk was sent on July 21, 2010 by Alastair Beattie, an environmental assessment analyst at the fisheries department, to Jeffrey Barry, the manager of environmental assessment and marine programs section of Environment Canada.

The Northern Gateway project and other proposed pipeline projects would allow Canadian oil companies operating in the oilsands region to expand production and exports to new markets in the United States and Asia.

Apart from the boreal and southern mountain populations of woodland caribou, the list also included sprague's pipit, the short tailed albatross, the pink footed shearwater, the marbled murrelet, the northern goshawk Queen Charlotte (laingii) subspecies, the western toad, the yellow rail, the rusty blackbird, the western screech-owl, the peregrine falcon pealei subspecies, the cryptic paw, the coast tailed frog, and the long-billed curlew.

The 15 species listed in the notice did not include marine mammals such as humpback and fin whales that could be killed or harmed by the increased traffic or unintentional collisions with supertankers transporting the oil from the pipeline.

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