Pipelines and protests are two things that are synonymous with one another in Canada. When it comes to protesting pipelines, Indigenous Canadians are prepared to spend serious jail time to have their voices heard. Few Canadians are likely to be aware of everything their historical grievances involve, apart from maybe general suggestions of uprooted communities and destroyed land. However, the history behind how Indigenous Canadians have been treated in the past, how little care has gone into past construction development projects and the health harms that resulted, all of it is necessary to understand why Indigenous Canadians feel so strongly towards pipelines.
Pipelines 101 – A quick intro to pipelines.
Pipelines have been in existence since the ancient times and used by ancient Romans, Persians, and Chinese. The Romans and Persians used pipelines mainly for drinking and irrigation, while the Chinese utilized bamboo pipelines to transport natural gas to light Beijing. The leap towards modernized pipelines occurred around the 18th century with the usage of cast-iron for pipes. Then in the 19th century, there was a shift to steel pipes, and it was also when the strength and size of pipelines started to vary. Some of the early challenges related to these steel pipes were that large pipes were susceptible to leaking under high pressure. Often leaks would only get discovered after serious damage had been done to the surrounding areas, and it was not uncommon for entire ecosystems to be destroyed.
The first major construction boom around pipelines occurred in the late 1920s, and, over the decades, material quality would slowly improve, with even slower advancements in their regulation. In the 1940s were pipelines first started to incorporate anti-corrosion technologies. The 1950s and 1960s are considered the most significant time periods for pipe construction, as nearly half of pipeline construction occurred between the two decades, and they brought the introduction of in-line inspection tools that could identify defects with greater accuracy. However, a major concern is how these pipelines are going to be maintained as the materials reach their end-of-life and start to deteriorate and pose a risk to the surrounding environments. In the 1990s, anti-corrosion technologies peaked and pipelines began to be installed under highways and rivers to provide greater protection and less exposure to damage. Additionally, in-line inspection tools have continued to evolve so that corroded areas can be better identified along with other defects.
A pipeline was built in Canada without anyone’s permission. It ended up being a disaster.
The CANOL pipeline (Canadian American Norman Oil Line) started to be built shortly after the U.S. declared war on Japan in 1941 and a Lend-Lease agreement between the USSR and the U.S., making Alaska a strategic location. Development of a steady supply of oil to Alaska became a top priority; one that had the potential to change the trajectory of WW2. But the closest oil production to the Yukon at the time was Norman Wells in the North-West Territories.
A total of four CANOL pipelines were constructed under the eye U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. CANOL1 stretched from Norman Wells to Whitehorse, YT. CANOL2 stretched from Whitehorse to the Alaskan port of Skagway. CANOL 3 stretched to Watson Lake. And CANOL4 stretched from Whitehorse to Fairbanks. In addition to these pipelines, there was significant construction of roads and support airfields that even stretched all the way to Peace River Alberta.
So much construction and development completed in such a short period should be reason to celebrate, but the start of the CANOL project was not cleared by Ottawa or Washington and the US Corps of Engineers were operating on their own initiative. Another surprise in this development was that while the pipeline was constructed by Americans who hired Canadians, the Canadian Army was not involved in the project. The project’s cost totalled $134,000,000—five times the initial budget.
The pipeline was 4 inches in diameter and rested on the ground. Pumping stations were required to keep the oil moving, usually a crew of 4 people every 16 kilometers. In terms of monitoring, the CANOL line was not buried, but simply rested on the ground and the crews would occasionally take walks up and down the pipeline to keep an eye out for leaks. Although the pipeline was supposed to start operating in the Fall of 1942, it was not until February 1944 that it was completed, and oil only started to flow in April. Only a year later, however, the U.S. War Department decided to shut the entire project down. The Canadian Government was given the option to purchase the pipeline, but it declined.
Much of the equipment was left on the land to decay, and it was estimated that 45,000 barrels of crude oil had spilled from the pipeline during its operation, contaminating the ground around it. This matches some historical records that have suggested that up to 20% of the oil that was transported through the pipelines had leaked out, in less than a year since they had become operational. Even the storage tanks that were designed to hold the oil had burst, and crude oil had spilled into rivers as well. However, it is difficult to get a more accurate picture of the spillage because the drilling sites were operated by Imperial Oil and those records are private. It’s not even known if they still exist.
Hearing that there were “45,000 barrels of crude oil” that leaked from a pipeline does not mean much to the average listener. To better understand the magnitude of the leak, 1 barrel of crude oil is just under 160 litres, which means approximately 7,200,000 litres of oil leaked out the CANOL pipelines. The fallout from all that toxicity has had real effects on the biodiversity of the area, but the full extent of the harms has never been researched because of how isolated and large the pipelines area was. However, we can assume that the effects would be similar to the impacts that other land oil spills have caused, including choking off plant life as land that absorbs oil is incapable of absorbing water.
However any grievances and issues that Indigenous Canadians raised regarding the construction and operation of the CANOL pipeline, do not appear to have been documented anywhere. It has been suggested that the government and army were not interested in hearing or recording these issues because WW2 was the priority.. However, it took quite some time for remediation and clean up efforts to begin and they have been ongoing for decades, and remain a point of contention for Indigenous Canadians in the surrounding areas. Some of those efforts can be found in section 17.3 of the Sahtu Dene and Metis Comprehensive Land Claim Agreement.
It’s not just faulty pipelines that have victimized Indigenous Canadian communities through toxic chemicals.
The Canada Energy Regulator (formerly National Energy Board) is the regulatory body that oversees oil, gas, and electric utility industries and was created in 1959. According to one article that was published in the Canadian Historical Review, “A History of Oil Spills on Long-Distance Pipelines in Canada”, Canada’s energy regulator has amassed records of thousands of spills totaling millions of litres of oil across the country.
The article points out that the majority of pipeline deliveries exceed 99%, while concluding that even the smallest of spills can disrupt an entire area’s biosphere with water contamination, wildlife habitat disruption, soil quality degradation, and ignitable land. Although 99% sounds like a great number, it is important to remember that Canada daily oil production is in the millions of barrels and ends up being over one billion barrels of oil. A fraction of a percent on a billion barrels of oil is still large enough to permanently disrupt an ecosystem and have devasting effects on both humans and wildlife. Overall, the thesis of the article is that pipeline spills are an endemic characteristic of complex enviro-technical systems built primarily for economic efficiency rather than environmental protection.
Lesser known among Canadians might be that other industrial projects outside of oil, gas, and electric utility industries have also caused major harms that have resulted in birth defects and neurological conditions. One instance of such a scandal was in Dryden, Ontario, where Indigenous Canadians living on community reserves were having disproportionate childbirths with physical defects and neurological conditions. In 1970, the Ontario Water Resources Commission (currently Ontario Ministry of Environment) had their 1969 report receive major attention, with the conclusion being that Indigenous Canadians around the Wabigoon River had been exposed to major toxins from the operations of a paper mill since 1913. Eventually it would be reported that the harmful toxins were not only causing long-term reproductive and developmental problems to surrounding communities, but they were also destroying immune systems, interfering with hormones, and causing cancer.
But neither the CANOL pipeline nor the Dryden paper mill are one-off incidents, and there are many other examples of Indigenous Canadian communities across Canada having to deal with the fallout from industrial projects that end up contaminating the very environments that they rely upon for survival. In the past, and even recently, when Indigenous Canadians have reported unusual health conditions that seemed to be plaguing their communities, they were gaslit for decades with explanations of “don’t worry”. That very explanation of “don’t worry” has resulted in lived experiences and health struggles that today’s Indigenous Canadians can still remember, with many community elders being able to vividly recall the impact of such harms.
Is such a thing as a “balanced approach” to these projects still possible.
One example of top-quality pipeline construction can be seen with how Koch Industries developed patented technology for a unique material that wraps around pipelines and has fibreoptic sensors to detect even the slightest of vulnerabilities. This invention came out of a major spill that had occurred in the U.S. and after brothers David and Charles Koch saw the impact it had on the surrounding communities. Since then, Koch Industries has been able to deliver on its environmentally-centered priorities that balanced fiduciary responsibilities to shareholders and responsibilities to communities in which they operate.
The number of Canadians that are in favor pipelines and who want Canada to leverage its natural resources on the global stage seems to be growing. At the same time, the animosity towards Indigenous Canadian protests that pop up related to industrial projects that may harm Indigenous Canadian communities also seems to be growing. These two positions often converge with a disregard for the history behind pipelines and a disregard for the historical challenges that have plagued Indigenous Canadians across Canada. Any anger directed at Indigenous Canadians is anger pointed in the wrong direction, because their responses to these industrial developments is based on what these communities have lived and what they have come to know.
Is a “balanced approach” to getting industrial projects accomplished still attainable in Canada? It has to be, but it involves shifting away from viewing Indigenous Canadians as “stakeholders” and towards viewing them as rights-holders.