Hold On to Your Pipeline, EnCana -- The Vacation’s Over

December may have heralded the beginning of increased anxiety at the EnCana Corporation, as it marks the end of the three-month “summer vacation” given by the still unknown bomber of the corporation’s natural gas pipeline in British Columbia. Since last October, the bomber has issued two handwritten, anonymous public warnings to EnCana, North America’s largest natural gas producer, via the newspaper in Dawson Creek, BC. The letters call for a halt of the corporation’s sour gas operations in the area. As EnCana has been reluctant to adhere to the bomber’s requests to cease production and leave town, the corporation’s pipeline and wellheads have been attacked six times, beginning with a blast on October 11, 2008. The blasts have caused no injuries to humans, but have caused natural gas leaks from the pipeline.

The bomber’s last letter, sent to the Dawson Creek Daily News in mid-July 2009, just days after the sixth bombing of the pipeline, gave EnCana three months announce a plan to pull out of the region, before, “things get a lot worse.” The bomber referred to oil companies as “terrorists,” and insisted, “You are indeed vulnerable, despite your mega-funds.”
EnCana issued a $1M reward for information leading to the bomber’s arrest, and tension has run high between the police and locals, as the bomber has been assumed as someone who lives in the area. Many locals have become more outspoken about safety concerns relating to the pipeline, and to the extraction of ‘sour’ natural gas, which contains hydrogen sulfide, a toxin that causes death with a few inhalations. While the police claim that many locals are withholding information, residents persist that they have been the target of police harassment. Unfortunately, this has hit hardest in the local First Nation community, who have been under excessive surveillance and scrutiny since the bombings initiated. A 76-year-old grandmother was seized and detained on suspicion of connection to the bombings, drawing public outcry.
Along with these acts of racial profiling, the gas leaks caused by the bombings may also give rise to discussion as to the best tactics for direct action against multinationals– while these bombings continue to draw attention to EnCana’s destructive practices, the bombings themselves have preceded a fallout of local unrest, and pollution and environmental disruption from leaking pipes.
Perhaps this struggle spurred convicted Alberta activist-bomber Weibo Ludwig to issue his recent public letter to bomber, calling for a moratorium on the bombings. While encouraging the bomber to call it quits for now, Ludwig also declared his respect, stating, “You’ve set a lot of good things in motion…you’ve truly woken a lot of people and stimulated valuable discussion.”
No response has been issued to Ludwig, and as winter nears, it’s obvious that only time will tell if the bomber will strike again. As EnCana has persisted at drilling itself into the region, it’s obvious that, for better or worse, there is now a strong force at work, pushing back.
"You (EnCana) simply can't win this fight, because you are on the wrong side of the argument,” the bomber wrote. “So stop pushing people around here…return the land to what it was before you came."


Sources: Dawson Creek Daily News, CBC News British Columbia, Vancouver Sun, Earth First! Journal, National Post, Reuter’s Magazine