http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20081018.wbcpipeline18/BNStory/National
DAWSON CREEK, B.C. — When Christine Mortensen heard about a second attack on a pipeline near Dawson Creek, she didn't need to stretch her imagination to speculate how such an attack could affect her.
Within a 10-minute walk in any direction from her home are pipelines, wells and a stack that on occasion flares natural gas day and night, shooting a banner of flame into the sky.
“It is just way too close to home,” Ms. Mortensen said yesterday in her front yard across the road from an EnCana site dominated by a flare stack. Like others in the region, she is worried and frightened by the attacks, which RCMP say are linked and occurred after a threatening letter was sent last week to local newspapers demanding that oil and gas interests leave the area.
Yesterday, RCMP explosives experts were combing the site of the second blast, which was discovered on Thursday morning after two workers doing routine maintenance work heard a hissing noise, depressurized that section of the pipeline and called police.
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The first blast occurred on Saturday night and was discovered by a hunter who came across a two-metre-deep crater beneath an EnCana pipeline in a stretch of bush about 50 kilometres southeast of Dawson Creek.
The second occurred nearby, at an EnCana site only a few kilometres off the main highway between Dawson Creek and the Alberta line. Like the first, it caused minimal damage to the pipeline and no injuries to workers or area residents, resulting in black humour among residents about a hapless bomber.
But both targeted pipelines carry natural gas that contains hydrogen sulphide, a potentially lethal chemical, and residents are unnerved by the prospect of other explosions.
Both EnCana and the RCMP have increased security around oil and gas operations, but it's impossible to guard every facility all the time, RCMP spokesman Tim Shields told reporters yesterday.
The attacks took place in an area of the province where oil and gas activity has boomed and where some residents have complained about the wells and pipelines springing up on their pastures and fields.
EnCana on Thursday said the natural gas in the pipes contained a very small percentage of hydrogen sulphide, about 0.07 per cent, and that the amount of gas released was very small and did not present a danger to the public.
The post-blast specialists will try to recreate what happened and determine what kind of explosives were used, RCMP spokesman Sergeant Tim Shields told reporters yesterday.
I wonder who is behind this. I dont see it being Islamic Terrorists, but who wants this gone?
The gas it carries is lethal, sour gas will paralyze you then kill you, but they are attacking the pipeline where there are no people. What is the purpose of this? POssibly some disgruntled Encana employee? Does not make any sense other, than to raise the price of heating gas this winter, but from what I understand, the price is regulated from the spring before. So it would affect next years prices?
DAWSON CREEK, B.C. — When Christine Mortensen heard about a second attack on a pipeline near Dawson Creek, she didn't need to stretch her imagination to speculate how such an attack could affect her.
Within a 10-minute walk in any direction from her home are pipelines, wells and a stack that on occasion flares natural gas day and night, shooting a banner of flame into the sky.
“It is just way too close to home,” Ms. Mortensen said yesterday in her front yard across the road from an EnCana site dominated by a flare stack. Like others in the region, she is worried and frightened by the attacks, which RCMP say are linked and occurred after a threatening letter was sent last week to local newspapers demanding that oil and gas interests leave the area.
Yesterday, RCMP explosives experts were combing the site of the second blast, which was discovered on Thursday morning after two workers doing routine maintenance work heard a hissing noise, depressurized that section of the pipeline and called police.
Related Articles
Recent
* Second pipeline explosion bears marks of sabotage, RCMP say
* RCMP terror squad probes pipeline bombing
The Globe and Mail
The first blast occurred on Saturday night and was discovered by a hunter who came across a two-metre-deep crater beneath an EnCana pipeline in a stretch of bush about 50 kilometres southeast of Dawson Creek.
The second occurred nearby, at an EnCana site only a few kilometres off the main highway between Dawson Creek and the Alberta line. Like the first, it caused minimal damage to the pipeline and no injuries to workers or area residents, resulting in black humour among residents about a hapless bomber.
But both targeted pipelines carry natural gas that contains hydrogen sulphide, a potentially lethal chemical, and residents are unnerved by the prospect of other explosions.
Both EnCana and the RCMP have increased security around oil and gas operations, but it's impossible to guard every facility all the time, RCMP spokesman Tim Shields told reporters yesterday.
The attacks took place in an area of the province where oil and gas activity has boomed and where some residents have complained about the wells and pipelines springing up on their pastures and fields.
EnCana on Thursday said the natural gas in the pipes contained a very small percentage of hydrogen sulphide, about 0.07 per cent, and that the amount of gas released was very small and did not present a danger to the public.
The post-blast specialists will try to recreate what happened and determine what kind of explosives were used, RCMP spokesman Sergeant Tim Shields told reporters yesterday.
I wonder who is behind this. I dont see it being Islamic Terrorists, but who wants this gone?
The gas it carries is lethal, sour gas will paralyze you then kill you, but they are attacking the pipeline where there are no people. What is the purpose of this? POssibly some disgruntled Encana employee? Does not make any sense other, than to raise the price of heating gas this winter, but from what I understand, the price is regulated from the spring before. So it would affect next years prices?
