Premieress

[SADIE]

Just to add another note on what is happening.

Pipeline landowners and landowner associations across Canada are presently involved in an abandonment cost estimate hearing order MH 001 2012.

The NEB told the Grade 1 pipeline companies Enbridge, Transcanada and others to start collecting funds now when they are making huge $$$ so that there is funds in place so that Abandonment of pipelines involves complete removal of corroded and rotten steel and contaminated soil on agriculture land at a planned rate of 20% removeal of pipelines.

The major pipeline companies Enbridge, & Transcanada came back to the regulator and said they plan on 99.9% abandonment in place of their pipelines.

Last Feb a hearing order went out from the NEB till March 31 2012 for concerned parties to intervene. The list is on the NEB website.

Evidence has been allowed with a deadline of July 26, now extended to Aug 10 and now till Aug 23 for landowner and landowner groups to file.

The hearing starts in Calgary tentatively scheduled of Oct 31,Nov 1 2012.

There is huge landowner outcry at this time that there should be no more Grade 1 pipelines placed in the ground untill proper abandonment conditions are met.

Landowners at the LMCI LAND MATTER CONSULTATION INITIATIVE in 2008 at the NEB were told that there should be "0" risk to landowners on these pipelines when they are abandoned.

Landowners groups spent huge $$$ with expert witnesses of corrosion engineers. The only witnesses to come forward at the NEB hearing (2008).

Shallow buried, large diameter pipelines left in agriculture ground for landowners to farm over with modern farm practices---collapse of pipes,soil contamination, ground water conduit of contamination to adjacent lands.

Pipeline landowners do not want to end up with a certificate of buried abandoned pipelines on property.

This heat at the National Energy Board office is timely especially when there is the certificate hearing of another major pipeline going into the ground.

In 2007 MPLA (MANITOBA) and SAPL (SASKATCHEWAN) signed the settlement agreement with Enbridge. A bench mark deal with 0 confidentiality clauses attached. One of the important clauses to that settlement was an addendum regarding the old pipelines (back to 1951) addressing abandonment and removeal of rotten and old pipes on our lands.

Now the regulator the National Energy Board can change the laws so that these signed agreements don't mean a damn thing.

Like I said before. Knowing what we know now. No landowner deserved to have these large diameter pipelines forced across their lands if they care for the stewardship and future of the said lands.

[SADIE]

ASRG----

Followup to your comment "we will see what the BC natives are made of"

ASRG--I always read your threads and understand your knowledge of property rights, negotiatons on the Alberta energy front.

Again we can learn from the first nations. When you are dealing or negotiating with NEB regulatory linear companies there are basic principals to follow. The first nations are doing this to the extreme expertice they have.

I have watched them at the Enbridge annual shareholders meeting in Calgary in 2010 & 2011. There is an open mike time and they methodically demonstrate outside the building, they methodically go to the mike and speak and are passionate, they have and continue to get to meet with president and CEO and the entire board of directors of the pipeline company.

Landowner associatons and you must be an associations with affected landowners who will not give up their signature to the aggressive landagents that are trying all their trickery in obtaining that signature.

A NEB regulated pipeline has 4 hearing to get through to get the pipeline in the ground.

1)Certificate hearing
2)Detailed route hearing
3)Expropriation hearing or Right of Entry Order hearing.
4)Compensation hearing.

The other basic philosophy that one must understand and it goes against the knowledge and hammer the landagents use is this.

Do not talk about $$$ compensation, never, talk about safety of pipelines, environmental concerns, risk, emotion and abandonment of pipelines. Keep that talk going and get it to the media attention like it is apparent today with all the oil spills , leaks and concerns.

The sooner in the pipeline application process the group "intervenes" the greater the rewards for that group.

The gateway certificate hearing process is showing this to the highest level never reached before in Canadian History.

Watch and learn and watch the outcome. The landowners from Hardisty Alberta, through Saskatchewan, and Manitoba are watching closely who just completed the final "buttoning up of the Alberta Clipper Project". If the Gateway doesn't go---We are concerned about another pipe coming back down our throats to eastern canada and Maine and being shipped by tanker ships to the Gulf of Mexico that way.

It is not fun dealing or negotiating with the powers of these huge energy companies backed by federal politicians.

[ASRG]

Sadie: Believe me when I tell you that I have high hopes for the First Nation people to hold these governments to account...... and working for their best interests?
Like you our group is closely watching Northern Gateway and any legal implications that come about from that process?
I don't have much to do with NEB pipelines, however we do have a director who sits on the "abandoned pipeline committee".
I was appointed to the Alberta Competitive Regulatory Review on Oil and Gas and me and the First Nations guy collaborated on putting up a front against government and industry (it was definitely David vs Goliath). Despite the popular potrayal of FN's as a bunch of lazy drunks...I know different.....good people working hard for their rights!

[SADIE]

ASRG--

We do only deal with NEB regulated facilties--ie these grade 1 pipelines. Those affected are a growing mass of agriculture pipeline landowners that are continually in contact by phone, email and conference call across Canada. WE work with a strong legal team also that know the NEB act better than the lawyers within the NEB.

The abandonment issue is reaching heights and media attention as we speak. When one knows and follows the lifecycle of a NEB regulated pipeline the INTEGRITY DIG PROCESS and the OIL SPILL attention is the step or phase before the abandoment attention.

Sitting on boards to lobby or make these energy companies accountable on abandonment issues is one thing but standing in the trench or becoming intervenors at hearing at NEB hearings is the next step.

Like the last post. We are 5 years past signing the SAPL/MPLA ENBRIDGE settlement agreement and we thought we had a good deal on issues and compensaton. The linear trenching bonus (first in Canadian History) of $35.00 per linear meter was supposed to make landowners whole. We tried to get that into annual payment something you always mentioned and wanted and couldn't. We either had to take the deal or go to that certificate hearing ourselves and loose everything. We took a deal and many many landowners were happy. After the huge windfall of $$$ the flip side is revenue Canada disregarded that it went with the land ie: extreme soil disturbance, nuisance of section 112 and the controll zone of 100 ft and now the loss of equity with buried pipelines.

This payment and now tax audition to all along the Enbridge and the Transcanada Keystone line. Now add to this the abandoment issue we thought we resolved ------you better believe there is a corridor of landowners that are now pissed off. Do we ever want to trust another negotiated settlement with a pipeline company???

Try coming through next time. annual payment and abandanoment language on old pipes totally resolved or there will be a mass of landowners offering their hands to be handcuffed and jailed.

Like I said before I admire the first nation people. I have spoke to these groups about the end stage of the life cycle of a pipeline. They are only speaking oil spill right now and contamination of aquafirs and fishing industry. Soon very soon they will be speaking abandonment in place of rotten old decaying pipelines. Maybe then the media will get the entire story out and to the forefront.