The owners of Coastal GasLink Pipeline Ltd. have been hit with another $590,000 in fines for environmental certificate violations, bringing the total financial penalties to $1.4 million.
The BC Environmental Assessment Office (EAO) today announced it has fined Coastal GasLink another $590,000 for non-compliance. The fines related to “deficiencies” in erosion and sediment control.
The recent $590,000 in fines are in addition to $796,000 in penalties levied previously in 2023 and 2022. They all stem from compliance monitoring that took place since 2019, which included close to 100 inspections by air and ground, the EAO said.
“These inspections have led to the EAO issuing 59 warnings, 30 orders – including 13 stop-work orders – and more than $800,000 in fines.”
“We respect the role our regulators have in upholding the high regulatory standards that we are committed to meeting,” Coastal GasLink said in a news release. “As soon as these issues were identified, we took immediate and decisive action to correct them.
“Since Fall 2023, Coastal GasLink has been fully and consistently compliant with the EAO on erosion and sediment control. At the height of construction in Spring 2023, over 500 people were dedicated to managing erosion and sediment control full time, including over 700 erosion and sediment control-trained team members across the project.”
The Coastal GasLink pipeline was built by TC Energy (TSX:TRP) to serve the LNG Canada project in Kitimat, which today announced it is now 95 per cent complete.
