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For Immediate Release

MEDIA RELEASE

Standing Up for Suffield National Wildlife Area:
Submission to Suffield Panel Packed with Evidence against Drilling Project

Calgary (February 19, 2008)– Three environmental groups filed an extensive joint submission yesterday to the Suffield Joint Review Panel. Alberta Wilderness Association, Nature Canada, and Grasslands Naturalists are opposing EnCana’s plans to drill 1,275 wells and construct 220 km of pipeline in the Suffield National Wildlife Area.


"EnCana has been alarmingly insensitive to environmental issues at CFB Suffield, and this continues with the proposed drilling project,” says AWA Vice-President Cliff Wallis. “Even if their record were impeccable, the National Wildlife Area must remain closed to any new industrial development if its primary function to protect wildlife habitat is to be
maintained. We have compelling scientific evidence and expert opinion in economics, environmental law and biodiversity that support that position.”

Among the many topics addressed, the submission examines the deficiencies in EnCana’s approach to the environmental assessment, the effects the project will have on the environment, EnCana’s poor past performance relative to environmental protection; and the economic considerations related to the project.


It is the groups’ position that (a) EnCana’s assessment of the proposed project is deficient and the company did not therefore adequately determine the project’s effects on the National Wildlife Area; and (b) it is clear, even with a deficient assessment, that the drilling project will cause significant, adverse effects on this rare ecosystem that cannot
be mitigated or justified in any way.


The groups’ submission will be posted, along with all other comments and submissions from the public, on the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency website (link to a pdf)

The groups will present their case, along with other interveners, at the Formal Hearing, which begins in Calgary on March 10, 2008.

For more information:


Cliff Wallis, Alberta Wilderness Association: 403-271-1408 (cell: 403-607-1970)

Carla Sbert, Nature Canada: 1-800-267-4088 ext. 222, csbert@naturecanada.ca

Dawn Dickinson, Grasslands Naturalists: 403-526- 6443, dmdickinson@shaw.ca

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