B.C. Conservation Groups Hope to Halt Northern Gateway

White sturgeon | BCBusiness
The endangered Nechako white sturgeon is now posing the biggest threat to the construction of the Northern Gateway pipeline.

Several environmental organizations are filing legal action against Enbridge’s pipeline project because of the threat to endangered species.

The newest and most potent threat to Enbridge’s embattled Northern Gateway pipeline is a Nechako white sturgeon.
 
A handful of conservation groups from around B.C. are hoping the imminent threat to the ancient fish species will be enough to kibosh the proposed pipeline, which would span the Endako and Stewart rivers, two of the sturgeon’s primary habitats.
 
Ecojustice, Greenpeace Canada, Sierra Club B.C., the Wilderness Committee and Wildsight plan to use the Species At Risk Act to block construction of the pipeline because any disturbance will likely kill off the estimated 335 white sturgeon. As one of Ecojustice’s lawyers told the CBC, it’s illegal to destroy the habitat of any species protected under the legislation.
 
Several other endangered or threatened species, including the southern caribou and the marbled murrelet, also inhabit other regions along the pipeline’s proposed route, meaning this legal action poses a real and legitimate threat to the project.
 
With all the other provincial politicking around the controversial plan, this suit is just one more tick in the pipeline’s “Cons” column.