Over 1,800 Howe Sound residents and supporters have sent letters to provincial ministers demanding FortisBC halt construction on its Eagle Mountain Pipeline tunnel, after it was revealed the company has been violating its wastewater discharge permit for over a year.
The letters, organized through local environmental group My Sea to Sky, call on regulators to reject FortisBC’s application to increase its permitted effluent discharge, and to hold the company accountable for ongoing pollution into East Creek, which drains into Howe Sound.
A recent Vancouver Sun investigation found that FortisBC discharged more than 385 million litres more effluent into the creek than its permit allowed, exceeding allowable amounts almost every day from March 2025 to March 2026.
According to Tracey Saxby, executive director of My Sea to Sky, FortisBC is not only exceeding the total volume of discharged effluent, but also surpassing allowable limits for copper and aluminum content.
“FortisBC, when they first applied for this permit, they promised that they would meet BC water quality guidelines. And that they would stop work if they didn’t,” Saxby said. “So what is absolutely abhorrent is that they’ve broken that promise.”
The B.C. Energy Regulator issued a warning letter on Dec. 8, but has not ordered FortisBC to stop work. Since the warning, FortisBC has continued to exceed effluent, copper and aluminum limits.
On March 25, FortisBC applied to amend its permit to increase its allowable effluent discharge from 1,500 m³/day to 6,815 m³/day. The application also requests weaker, site-specific limits for dissolved copper and aluminum to replace existing province-wide water quality standards, limits FortisBC has justified in part by arguing that concentrations of those metals in the area are already naturally elevated.
FortisBC’s communications advisor, Brooke Rollinson, told the Vancouver Sun in an email that more effluent was being released because “groundwater inflow has been higher than anticipated.”
“We understand water quality and environmental protection are important. FortisBC takes these concerns seriously and remains committed to complying with applicable environmental legislation,” Rollinson said to the Sun.
For Saxby, the regulator’s response reflects a broader pattern of industry accountability failures in B.C.
“What we’re seeing with the BC Energy Regulator is a pattern of systemic, ongoing regulatory failure,” Saxby said. “It is absolutely possible for them to be treating the discharge or the effluent to meet BC water quality guidelines. But they are choosing not to because it will likely slow construction and increase costs. And that is absolutely appalling.”
Both My Sea to Sky and the Sunshine Coast Conservation Association have sent a joint letter to the BC Energy Regulator contesting the amendment. Saxby said the District of Squamish, Bowen Island Municipality, and the Howe Sound Biosphere Region have all sent similar letters to the BC Energy Regulator opposing the amendment.
“Our Howe Sound is a recovering ecosystem. It had a lot of impacts from past historical pollution,” said Saxby. “That means that we need to be particularly careful with any additional contaminants.”
The concern echoes the legacy of the Britannia Mine, which for much of the 20th century discharged acid rock drainage into Howe Sound, impacting marine life for decades. The sound has slowly been recovered since the mine’s closure, a recovery Saxby says could now be at risk.
