Canada:
Ecojustice Files Suit To Close Loophole In B.C. Water Act
23 December 2013
Willms & Shier Environmental Lawyers LLP
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Ecojustice filed a lawsuit with the B.C. Supreme Court
on November 13, 2013 on behalf of Sierra Club B.C. and the
Wilderness Committee. The lawsuit challenges a B.C. Oil and
Gas Commission practice of granting repeated short-term water use
approvals to oil and gas companies for fracking
operations.
These approvals, issued under the province's Water
Act, are typically used to permit water withdrawals for up to
two years for short-term projects such as construction or roadwork.
Water usage beyond the two-year limit would require a water
licence and the additional oversight such a licence entails.
Ecojustice says the Commission is "undermining BC's
water management regime and allowing these companies to dewater
northern BC" by repeatedly granting short-term approvals (in
some cases) for up to five years. Encana Corporation, one of
B.C.'s natural gas players, is also named in the suit.
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