Jeremy Klaszus

Elder Rayben Rollingmud, 70, is concerned about the toxic gas Petro-Canada wants to pipe past his reserve

Surrounded by the churning hills of the southeasteastern slopes at the Eden Valley Indian Reserve, Rayben Rollingmud aims his index finger southwest, towards the nearby mountains. “Right over there.”

Rollingmud, a 70-year-old elder who lives on the reserve, is showing where Petro-Canada plans to build a new sour gas pipeline as part of its Sullivan gas project — a pipeline full of “deadly gas,” Rollingmud notes. Hydrogen sulphide is fatal even in low concentrations, and the pipeline carrying the toxic gas is slated to come within 360 metres of this compact foothills reserve.

No pipeline has ever come so close to Eden Valley, which is about 70 kilometres southwest of Calgary, just outside Kananaskis Country. “A lot of people are worried,” says Rollingmud.

Most of the reserve’s 100 homes don’t have telephone landlines, and cellphones search in vain for service amidst the rolling terrain. “There are no medical services,” says Doug Rae, a lawyer representing the Stoney Nakoda Nations at an Alberta government hearing into the project. “No emergency services. No fire services. Nothing whatsoever on the reserve. The nearest facilities are Longview and Black Diamond. By the time they got [to Eden Valley], if there were an incident, an accident, involving a sour gas leakage, people would be dead.”

The village of Longview, population 300, is the nearest urban centre, almost 30 kilometres to the northeast. Even though 600-plus people live at Eden Valley, the reserve isn’t considered an urban centre. This designation matters because provincial regulations call for a 1.5 kilometre setback distance between sour gas pipelines and urban centres.

Petro-Canada’s proposed pipeline would come more than a kilometre closer to Eden Valley than it could come to a town with the same population. “It’s only being allowed to go adjacent to the reserve because the Stoneys are being treated differently than would be a similarly sized non-native community,” says Rae.

During the hearing, Petro-Canada has acknowledged that if the reserve was designated as an urban centre, the company would need to alter the pipeline’s layout. However, the company says the route’s close proximity to the reserve isn’t dangerous. “Safety is a top priority for Petro-Canada,” says company spokesperson Kyle Happy. “Development of sour gas is done in accordance with strict regulatory requirements. It’s something that we’ve been doing for the last 30 years in this part of Alberta, and we wouldn’t develop a project that isn’t safe.”

The Stoney Nakoda Nations — which includes the Bearspaw, Chiniki and Wesley First Nations — is one of many groups that have spoken out against the proposed pipeline. (Most of the people at Eden Valley belong to the Bearspaw band.) Wildlife biologists, historians and local ranchers have also argued that the ecologically sensitive southeastern slopes are the wrong place for Petro-Canada’s gas project.

The company plans to drill 11 sour gas wells in Kananaskis and pipe the gas south. The pipeline would have a 20-metre right-of-way, crossing upwards of 40 waterways and cutting through important wolf and grizzly habitat. “The Eden Valley route was chosen because it offered the best possible balance of environmental, land use, safety, construction and operational considerations,” says Happy. “There are a lot of factors that were taken into consideration here.”

Harvey Gardner, a rancher whose family has been living and working in the area since 1898, is worried that wolves displaced from their dens by the pipeline will attack his livestock. “They would be out full-time where we winter our cattle, and our whole management will have to be altered a lot to be able to hang on and stay in business,” says Gardner, 72. “It affects me directly, and what doesn’t affect me is going to affect my friends and neighbours.” Gardner also says the pipeline comes “way too close” to the Eden Valley reserve. “It has a lot of people there, and they’re there all the time,” he says.

The Stoney Nakoda Nations are calling on Health Canada to step in and ask Petro-Canada to alter the pipeline’s route because of the possible health and safety impacts on the people of Eden Valley. “We believe it’s their jurisdiction,” says Rae.

A Health Canada spokesperson wouldn’t comment on the Nations’ specific request but said the department is aware of Petro-Canada’s plans and will look at “where we can actually play a role within [the Nations’] request.”

The Stoney Nakoda Nations are also asking federal Environment Minister Jim Prentice to order a federal environmental assessment.

The provincial government hearing into the project is scheduled to stretch into January.