Pipeline blasts set British Columbia town on edge

Vancouver

No one knows exactly when the first bomb went off under the EnCana firm's gas pipeline in a remote part of British Columbia.

It wasn't until a hunter in the northeastern part of the province, near the town of Dawson Creek, spotted the 2-metre-deep crater under the pipeline on October 12 that it was known that an explosion had even occurred.

It was when the second attack took place nearby late on Wednesday or early on Thursday that everyone sat up to take notice.

'We're not characterising this as terrorism, but we're characterising it as a targeted attack,' said Royal Canadian Mounted Police Sergeant Tim Shields. 'The RCMP is taking this incident very seriously and is dedicating investigators from a number of specialised units, including Inset,' the Integrated National Security Enforcement Team.

The damaged pipeline carries sour gas, which contains hydrogen sulfide, which can be fatal when inhaled. While the first blast didn't damage the pipeline, the second explosion caused a rupture and a leak, which was quickly contained by technicians.

The arrival of bomb specialists and Inset, the RCMP's anti-terrorism unit, has led to wild speculation about dark plots and the threat of eco-terrorism in an area that has become the centre of Canada's gas and oil industry.

'Everyone is talking about this,' said Dawson Creek's deputy mayor, Marilyn Belak. 'We have all this space and when you're 100 miles between neighbours, this whole hinterland is our backyard.'

Dawson Creek, the largest town in the area, has undergone big changes in recent years. The oil and gas boom has seen the area's agriculture and the forestry sector crumble. There are now nearly 4,000 productive oil and gas wells in the area, providing thousands of jobs.

Over the past decade, annual industry revenue has gone from C$464 million (HK$3 billion) to C$2 billion.

Ms Belak says she's convinced that most people are glad that the oil and gas industry is so strong in the region because of the jobs and money flowing into the community. The likely bomber, she suspects, is someone who doesn't agree.

In the late 1990s there were at least 160 attempts to vandalise or sabotage oil-industry facilities.

A couple of weeks ago, an anonymous letter arrived at the local paper warning the industry to shut down by October 11 - the day before the first blast site was discovered.

'We will no longer negotiate with terrorists, which you are, as you keep endangering our families with crazy expansion of deadly gas wells in our homelands,' said the letter.

Andrew Nikiforuk, who has written a book about one activist's war against the oil companies, said rapid development had led to the deaths of five workers in the past six years and livestock being killed. 'There is a lot of fear associated with sour-gas development.'

Calgary, Alberta-based energy giant EnCana has made its share of enemies in the region.

Matt Horne, a policy adviser with the environmental think-tank Pembina Institute, said that while EnCana followed the rules, many landowners had had conflicts with the company. Land is privately owned in the region but under provincial laws the government can sell subsurface rights.

'There are a number of disgruntled landowners around there who have long-standing issues with the oil and gas activity around them,' said Mr Horne.

Alan Boras, a spokesman for EnCana, said that 'by and large we have very, very good relations' with the residents in the area.

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