Yukon environment board extends Northern Cross comment deadline

Three First Nations say they need more time to submit comments on a proposed drilling project in the Eagle Plains area.

Northern Cross has proposed drilling and conducting flow tests on up to 20 exploratory oil and gas wells in the region over the next eight years.

The project alsoincludes the construction of up to 82 kilometres of roadsfirst winter roads and then all-season roads, if needed.

The area is approximately 30 kilometres south of Eagle Plains within the traditional territory of the Vuntut Gwitchin and Na-Cho Nyak Dun First Nations and the secondary use area of the Tetlit Gwich'in.

The Yukon Environmental and Socio-economic Assessment Board is reviewing the project.

The board has granted an extension on the comment period at the request of the Vuntut Gwitchin, Na-Cho Nyak Dun and Tetlit Gwich'in governments.

In a letter to YESAB, Matthias Zinsli, Environment Officer for the Na-Cho Nyak Dun First Nation said the government needs more time because of the "complexity and size" of the project, "as well as concerns raised by elders that need to be addressed."

The public is also weighing in.

Don Roberts says there's no baseline data.

"Northern Cross hasn't done their homework," he says. "I think there are a number of issues, and I think the number one is there are no baseline studies on water, permafrost, caribou migration, or any kind of animal life, no long term ones. There haven't been any recent ones anyway."

He also has concerns about radioactivity, in particular radium 226 that could be found in water deep underground.

"Radioactivity is prevalent in all kinds of drilling, has not even been looked at," he says. "Do they really have a plan when they do run into it? What they're going to do with it or how are they going to accommodate it. Where are they going to send it?"