B.C. First Nation members evict gas line surveyors, set up pipeline road block

KITIMAT, B.C. – Members of a northern B.C. First Nation have evicted surveyors working on a natural gas pipeline project, and set up a road block for all pipeline activity.

A group identifying itself as the Unis’tot’en (YOU-nis-tottin) clan of the Wet’suwet’en (wet-SOO-it-in) Nation say surveyors for Apache Canada’s Pacific Trails pipeline were trespassing.

Company spokesman Paul Wyke confirms that surveyors were asked to leave Tuesday afternoon and they complied.

The group says the province does not have the right to approve development on their territory near Kitimat, the future home of proposed LNG plants and the tanker port for the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline.

The $1-billion Pacific Trails pipeline would deliver natural gas from northern B.C. and Alberta to the LNG terminal for shipment overseas.

The pipeline owned by Apache Corp., Encana (TSX:ECA) and EOG Resources, was approved in April and is expected to be operational in 2015.