RCMP terror squad probes pipeline bombing
Location of 'targeted attack' at heart of dispute over booming development's environmental effects
MARK HUME
Globe and Mail
October 16, 2008
VANCOUVER -- Gas industry employees have been put on alert and the RCMP's terrorist unit has been called in after an attempt to blow up a sour gas pipeline near Dawson Creek, in northeastern British Columbia.
Concerns were raised after a hunter found a two-metre-deep crater blasted out of the earth beneath an EnCana line that carries 60 million cubic feet of gas a day to the Steep Rock gas plant.
"This is a targeted attack on the infrastructure of British Columbia," RCMP Sergeant Tim Shields said yesterday in explaining why the Integrated National Security Enforcement Team has been called to help other police units with the investigation.
The role of INSET, according to the RCMP, is to "detect, prevent, disrupt and investigate terrorist targets and ultimately bring terrorists to justice prior to serious, violent, criminal acts being perpetrated in Canada and/or abroad."
The EnCana pipeline was damaged but not ruptured by the blast, which occurred at a point where the pipeline emerges from the ground, about 50 kilometres south of Dawson Creek near the Alberta border.
Sgt. Shields said the hunter who found the damage Sunday had passed by the same location the day before, indicating the bomb exploded some time overnight Saturday.
Sgt. Shields said oil and gas workers are "being asked to trust their instincts" and call police if they see any suspicious activity.
The location of the sabotage attempt is in the heart of a booming oil and gas area, where there have been aboriginal blockades and complaints by some landowners about the environmental impacts of development.
Alan Boras, manager of media relations for EnCana, said the company has not been the target of any vandalism or threats.
"This obviously is a very, very rare event. It is a very concerning one, yes. What we've done is inform employees, contractors and people who work in the area for other companies about what's occurred and asked them to increase their vigilance, in their day-to-day efforts, to keep an eye open," Mr. Boras said.
"Our primary concern is the safety of our employees, our contractors, the public, the people who live and operate in our communities," he said.
The attack on the gas line came one day after a small-town newsletter, the Coffee Talk Express, in Chetwynd, received a letter warning oil and gas companies to stop production and leave the area by noon on Saturday.
The letter did not make any specific threats.
Ramona Davidson, owner of the Coffee Talk Express, declined to discuss the letter, which she did not publish, instead turning it over to the local RCMP detachment.
"I'm not allowed to comment on any part of it. I know you want the story and so do I," she said yesterday.
Maggie Behn, editor of the Chetwynd Echo/Pioneer newspaper, said she hasn't heard any animosity directed at the gas industry.
"It's definitely unexpected," she said of the attack on EnCana. "The biggest thing we get outrage over is wind farms."