B.C. environmentalists’ challenge of port expansion dismissed [Video]

A Federal Court judge has thrown out a legal challenge by environmental groups that claimed allowing the expansion of a massive container facility on British Columbia’s waterfront would threaten the survival of southern resident killer whales and salmon.

The David Suzuki Foundation, the Georgia Strait Alliance, the Raincoast Conservation Foundation and the Western Canada Wilderness Committee filed a legal challenge last June against the Roberts Bank Terminal 2 project in Delta, B.C.

The groups claimed the federal government’s approval of the project wasn’t in step with the Species at Risk Act because it will destroy a large swath of chinook salmon habitat, which the endangered killer whales rely on for food.

The Federal Court dismissed the group’s judicial review on Friday, ruling that the decisions by the federal environment minister and the cabinet to allow the project to proceed were reasonable.

The court found the environment minister’s decision complied with …