Well, it looks like the worldwide slave revolt has finally come to Canada. And big surprise, the mainstream media is silent on the issue.

 

Apparently, residents of Dawson Creek, B.C. have taken the rather drastic step of blowing up natural gas pipelines in their ongoing battle with EnCana and it's nasty habit of leaking hydrogen sulphide into the air. There have been 6 bombings so far, and the police are completely without suspects. The RCMP are obviously feeling some pressure on this, so they are really leaning on the community for information - even going so far as to engage in public harassment - but so far nothing has turned up. There are only 3 possibilities that I can see:

 

1) Nobody in the community knows anything. The perpetrators are not local.

2) Nobody in the community knows anything. The perpetrators are local, but they aren't bragging about it

3) The community is shielding the perpetrators

 

Personally, I believe it is 2), but either way, this situation is getting out of hand.

 

Some background is in order.

 

Hydrogen sulphide is a naturally occuring gas commonly associated with natural gas. It is responsible for that distinctive "rotten eggs" smell that 90% of the population can detect at concentrations as weak as 50 parts per billion. Most of the natural gas in Western Alberta and Eastern B.C. is "sour", meaning it has higher than normal (1% or greater) concentrations of hydrogen sulphide. It is fatal at atmospheric concentrations exceeding 250 parts per million. So why are the people of Dawson Creen so angry? Because they have learned from their neighbors.

 

In October 2008, a school board in Alberta discovered that one of EnCana's nearby wells was venting hydrogen sulphide at concentrations exceeding 160,000 ppm. to be clear, that is 640 times a fatal concentration. If this is the way EnCana does business, it's no wonder the citizens of Dawson Creek are taking action.

 

Naturally, the RCMP has chosen to classify this as domestic terrorism, rather than arson. EnCana is also offering a $500,000 reward and beefing up security. Of course, there is no way to provide 24/7 security to the ~43,000 kilometres of pipeline and the ~150 wells around Dawson Creek, so we call all be assured there will be more attacks in the future.