The project is playing out on traditional, unceded Mi’kmaq territory. It does not have the support of the band most affected by it, the Sipekne’katik First Nation, though a few chiefs from other nearby reserves have flip-flopped on the proposal. Those Mi’kmaq opposing the project are asserting their rights based on the Peace and Friendship Treaties of the 1700s.

If the Shubenacadie River is damaged, it will be both an environmental disaster and a travesty of treaty rights.

The company’s plan is to store billions of cubic feet of natural gas during periods of low demand, and then deliver it to a gas pipeline system during when demand is high. But the project drags a scorpion’s tail behind it. Where will all that briny water go?

Back into the river, which is home to striped bass, American eel, the endangered Atlantic salmon and other species.