The Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline: Risks for Downstream Communities and Fisheries focuses on the potential impacts of the pipeline on First Nations and other communities living downstream of the pipeline’s river crossings.
The Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline proposal includes two 1,170 kilometre long pipelines from the tar sands in Alberta to the coast at Kitimat. The pipelines will carry an average of 525,000 barrels per day of crude oil to the ocean,1 and 193,000 barrels a day of condensate, a toxic kerosene-like natural gas by-product used to dilute crude oil so that it can be transported by pipeline, to Alberta.
The pipelines will cross over 1,000 streams and rivers, including the headwaters of the Fraser River (crossing the Stuart, Endako and Salmon Rivers) and the headwaters of the Skeena River (crossing the Morice and Bulkley watersheds). Each of these stream crossings will require two pipeline crossings, as the project consists of twinned pipelines. The project has the potential to seriously affect First Nations downstream of these crossings. The toxic effects of a spill could be felt for hundreds of kilometres, stretching down the entire length of the Fraser River to the sea