It’s 5:35 a.m., and the winding roads of the Sea to Sky highway are filled with early morning commuters, go-getter outdoor enthusiasts, and families racing to catch the day’s first island-bound ferry. The morning glow of sun leaves a trail of light across the adjacent ocean waters. It climbs over the region’s eastern mountain peaks, shining light on the narrow valley, meandering rivers and bird-rich estuary of Átl’ka7tsem (Howe Sound). The Sound, located on the outskirts of metropolitan Vancouver, British Columbia, teems with wildlife — orcas slide through the waters, bald eagles soar above, and salmon swim towards their home rivers.

Over years of morning commutes, I have witnessed the resilience of the Sound. It has recovered from the pollution, erosion, and contamination left from over a century of industrial pollution. I feel gratitude for its rebounding biodiversity. Gazing across the waters, I spot the large cruise ship that has been sitting in the bay since January. This ship, MV Isabelle X, has been refurbished into a $100 million “floatel” designed to house 650 workers for the proposed Woodfibre natural gas export facility and pipeline. As I drive on, I wonder, as during most of my morning commutes these days: “What does this mean for the future of the Howe Sound?”

Like most early-industry adjacent bodies of water, Átl’ka7tsem (the name for the Sound in Sḵwx̱wú7mesh sníchim language), has a long history of effluent contamination and ecosystem damage. The turn of the twentieth century brought pulp and paper mills, chemical plants, and a copper mine into what is also known as the Sea to Sky region. All these facilities operated with limited environmental restrictions. Britannia mine (1905-1974), once the largest copper mine in the British Empire, contaminated the Sound with sulphuric acid chalcopyrite (copper ore), galena (lead ore) and sphalerite (zinc ore). The mine deposited 40 million tons of tailings into the Sound’s marine slope and two portals released acid mine drainage into nearby soils and waters.

In the early 1900s, two additional industries — the Woodfibre Pulp Mill and Howe Sound Pulp and Paper Facility — added to the pollution. Effluents from these mills flowed directly into the Sound, depleting oxygen and changing PH levels in adjacent waters - killing aquatic life. 1965 brought the FMC Canada Chlor-alkali chemical plant onto the Skwxwu7mesh (Squamish) River estuary. A leak from this plant led to the contamination of groundwater and decimation of local flora, fauna, and supporting habitats.

These industries (aside from the Howe Sound Pulp and Paper Facility) have since closed, making space for the local community to work together to support Átl’ka7tsem’s environmental recovery. In 2002, a remediation campaign began treating Britannia’s contaminated soils and acid-polluted waters. Waters around the mills began to see a decrease in dioxin and furan contamination. Citizen scientists worked to protect glass-sponge reefs, stream keepers sought to restore the ecological integrity of herring and salmon spawning grounds, and the provincial government introduced a Cumulative Effects Framework to manage the recovering ecosystem.

Throughout the late 2010’s, cheers of excitement rang through Squamish’s waterfront as Slhawt’ (Pacific herring) populations returned to healthy numbers in the Sound for the first time in 60 years. After nearly a 100-year absence dolphins, porpoises, orcas, and humpback whales soon followed. In 2021, UNESCO designated over 2,000 square kilometers of the region – from mountain peak to ocean floor – as the Átl’ḵa7tsem / Howe Sound Biosphere Region.

Over the past few years, however, people of the Sea to Sky region have had to reconvene to protect the Sound’s ecological integrity from a new threat — a high pressure Fortis BC pipeline and Woodfibre LNG (WFLNG) export facility that will have the capacity to export 2.1 million tons of LNG per year. The LNG facility, being constructed on the old Woodfibre site, would include an associated 47-kilometer FortisBC’s Eagle Mountain–Woodfibre Gas Pipeline that would run under the Squamish Estuary and Howe Sound, connecting it to Port Coquitlam. Pre-construction preparations for both the export facility and the pipeline are underway, and the project intends to be in service as of 2027.

Woodfibre LNG is jointly owned by Pacific Energy Corporation (Canada) Limited (70 percent) and the Canadian pipeline company, Enbridge (30 percent). Pacific Energy is run by Indonesian billionaire Sukanto Tanoto, whose companies in Asia have a history of tax evasion and profit shifting, environmental destruction, and human rights violations. Enbridge too, has a long track record of environmental destruction and safety issues. The project, however, has received all major federal, provincial, and First Nations approvals. But, community members across Squamish and surrounding islands are still opposed to it.

“We as a community have a few main concerns — the project comes with large environmental risks threatening local herring populations as well as safety concerns, particularly for Indigenous women and girls” says Lizzie Howard, local climate advocate.

Activists from My Sea to Sky, a grassroots environmental group focused on the restoration and conservation of Howe Sound, share concerns about local habitat destruction, health risks for residents, fossil fuel pollution, fracking in Treaty 8 territories, and human rights violations.

The Woodfibre LNG’s project risks threatening levels of pH discharge, metal leaching, remobilization of old toxins buried in the soil and waters, underwater noise, large volumes of freshwater usage and a rise in carbon emissions. The group is challenging a permit granted to the project allowing it to release contaminated water into the Howe Sound fjord, and also seeking to cancel a wastewater permit the BC Energy Regulator has given FortisBC, allowing the natural gas utility to release effluent from the construction of a tunnel beneath the Skwelwil’em Squamish Estuary.

Community members also share concerns about housing 1,250 temporary workers in Squamish and the safety risks of work camps to the local population. Woodfibre LNG responded to these housing concerns with a proposal for a “floatel” — a cruise ship converted into temporary accommodations for LNG workers. “Accommodating workers on the floatel, along with firm restrictions on access to the community, will mean that workers have no impact on community infrastructure and services while providing them world class, safe and comfortable living accommodations,” the company said in a statement.

The floatel has earned the approval of both the BC Environmental Assessment Office and the Squamish Nation and seeks a Temporary Use Permit (TUP) from the District of Squamish Council, which denied it the permit in by a 4-3 vote in late April after a multi-hour public hearing where hundreds of community members shared their concerns about the project. These concerns include risks of violence against girls and women, a lack of clear steps in place to protect the community, no transparency or accountability mechanisms, poor waste management planning and risks to worker safety and wellbeing.

“I was very proud to be a resident of Squamish at this meeting,” Howard says of the hearing. “The community made great use of the open comment section, speaking in front of the council with well-researched speeches, voicing their concerns for hours. It felt empowering to have the support of so many people in the community and the My Sea to Sky organization.”

The community’s activism did not begin or end at this meeting, local activist Katie Perkins explains: “The community comes out to public hearings and council meetings and bombards WFLNG with questions and concerns. Over the years community members have repeatedly raised countless frustrations, concerns, and fears to everyone involved in the project and they do so relentlessly. I really think they hold WFLNG accountable. It feels powerful to be a part of a community that cares so much about protecting Howe Sound, Squamish, and the community of plants, animals, and humans from dangerous projects,” she says.

The council’s support of community opinion was an exciting moment for activists fighting the project but does not mark the end of the Floatel saga. On June 4, a second hearing took place, where the district of Squamish voted not to reconsider the Temporary Use Permit, pending further information to be gathered by district staff.

“Before this reconsideration, we received, I don’t know, hundreds of emails” Squamish Mayor Armand Hurford told CityNews Vancouver, a Canadian news network, “It needs to go back to a public hearing before we can revisit it correctly and procedurally”

But in the meantime, provincial regulators have ordered WFLNG workers onto the Squamish Floatel. As a part of WFLNG’s Environmental Certificate they must “house any worker who did not reside in the District of Squamish prior to Sept. 20, 2023, on the floatel.” The Squamish Chief, a local newspaper, reports, the company is proceeding to move the floatel to the project site to “ensure compliance with the order and our regulatory conditions.” In response to this order, Mayor Hurford said to CBC News, “Our position is that this order does not explicitly override the District of Squamish’s authority.”

Despite the provincial government’s ruling, the Squamish Council’s vote against the LNG floatel shows their commitment to supporting community voices and highlights the importance of wide-scale engagement and conversation. Though preliminary construction work on the LNG project is already underway, the local community is committed to fighting for the protection of environmentally vulnerable ecosystems, maintaining local safety, and advocating for clean energy options.