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VANCOUVER — A conservation group is suing the British Columbia government for deciding two oilpatch dams are exempt from environmental rules.
The B.C. Sierra Club says foreign-owned Progress Energy built the dams in the province’s north without environmental assessments.
The club alleges the government then retroactively exempted them from needing the reviews.
It alleges the government’s own staff have said the dams, which are used to store water for fracking operations, clearly meet the criteria for assessments.
The Sierra Club also claims the government doesn’t have the power to exempt dams from review after they’ve been built.
Even if it did, the club alleges the province didn’t have enough information to make a proper decision.
The government has not immediately responded to a request for comment.
Research has suggested that British Columbia has dozens of unlicensed and unreviewed dams built to service fracking operations.
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