After a decade of work, oil is flowing through the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion. People who live along the pipeline are looking to the future.
Buried underground, it is nearly invisible. The only real giveaways are the white and yellow signs dotting the landscape along the Yellowhead Highway west of Edmonton. Markers that someone could follow all the way to the Pacific Ocean, if they were determined enough.
Rallying cries of “no means no” echoed across crowds of protesters in Burnaby carrying signs warning of climate change, risks to watersheds and insufficient Indigenous consultation. In Alberta, calls for economic development were backed by blaring truck horns and chants of “build the pipe.” While the shovels are being stowed away and work camps disbanded, a new reality persists for people who live and work with Trans Mountain beneath their feet, regardless of how they feel about the project.Source: Global Energy Monitor, ©Mapcreator | OSM.org
Heat damage remains on a house after oil cars derailed and exploded near Gainford in 2013. With a high water table and Isle Lake nearby, a leak or rupture could have devastating consequences. But she still thinks the pipeline is the safer bet. A steady stream of customers filters in and out of Patterson’s Parts Supply in Edson. They chat and share a laugh with owner Don Patterson amid rows of gleaming wrenches and tubes of mechanical grease.“It has been a big part of our lives and it has meant a lot to our families and … to the past and to the future,” said Patterson.Even though Patterson wasn’t directly involved with Trans Mountain, he said the massive project was good news for his store.
He’s part of the Western Indigenous Pipeline Group, an Indigenously owned company created by First Nations leaders who share that goal. It has partnered with Calgary pipeline company Pembina to try to buy Trans Mountain. So far, about 40 other First Nations have signed on to the idea. The Western Indigenous Pipeline Group is not the only Indigenous group looking to invest in the pipeline. Project Reconciliation, headquartered in Calgary, has its own proposal. “Every First Nation has managed poverty since the signing of treaties and the establishment of this country. That has to change,” said Morin.They think the environmental risk outweighs any economic benefits the pipeline might bring.Miranda Dick fought hard against the construction of the Trans Mountain expansion.
“There is something coming here that poses a big threat to the natural environment of our people and really could affect the livability of our homelands,” he said. “Of course I am opposed.” The Sumas First Nation waited longer than many other First Nations, but ultimately did sign a benefit agreement with Trans Mountain.
Tara Shushtarian lives next door to the tank farm, not far from the watch house, in an area she calls the “incineration zone.” Now there are more tanks and they’re bigger, and Shushtarian worries that if something happens she won’t be able to evacuate with her husband in time. “Any spill would be catastrophic. A large spill would be absolutely cataclysmic,” said Peter Ross, senior scientist at the Raincoast Conservation Foundation., spraying crude oil over nearby homes and forcing 250 people to evacuate. The oil flowed down into nearby Burrard Inlet, prompting a massive cleanup effort.
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