Environmental protection

Sustaining and enhancing the environment is a priority for us. Our employees protect the natural environment by following established policies, rules, and procedures. Read our Safety and Environmental Policy.

Environmentally-responsible project planning

We have environmental specialists on our team who understand local fish and wildlife habitat, native plants, invasive weeds and other environmental concerns. Our project planners consider all possible environmental impacts and include this information in the project applications we submit to the BC Utilities Commission. Local communities as well as provincial, and federal government authorities, agencies, and organizations are consulted during development of our project plans.

Learn about our current projects in BC.

Environmental and Social Impact Assessments

Our major projects, such as the Tilbury LNG facility expansion and the FortisBC gas line upgrades involve comprehensive Environmental and Social Impact Assessments (ESIA). These assessments are not a regulatory requirement, but ESIA’s provide tremendous value, helping us minimize any environmental risks during and after construction.

Pest management

Pest management helps improve the safety and reliability of our systems while protecting environmentally sensitive areas and land uses and reducing the spread of noxious weeds, invasive plants and other pests. For example, invasive plant species may threaten the integrity of wooden poles holding up our power lines, or they may be growing in our natural gas line rights of way, preventing access to our equipment. 

Our pest management practices comply with the Integrated Pest Management Act and all applicable federal, provincial and regional laws and regulations. Our pest management plans include standards for:

  • responsible use of pesticides, and ongoing research into alternative methods 
  • planning and managing ecosystems to prevent organisms from becoming pests
  • identifying pest populations and potential pest populations
  • monitoring populations of pests and beneficial organisms, damage caused by pests and environmental conditions
  • using injury thresholds in making treatment decisions
  • suppressing pest populations to acceptable levels based on environmental and human health protection and consideration of biological, physical, cultural, mechanical, behavioural and chemical controls 
  • evaluating the effectiveness of pest management strategies

Pest management plans

Questions?

If you have questions or comments about our pest management plans, please email [email protected].

Protecting ospreys and our equipment

We work to prevent ospreys from nesting on our power poles. Find out how—and why—we do this. You can also check out our livestream osprey camera every spring.

Osprey Management Program