Enbridge analyzed
By Rebecca Billard - Burns Lake Lakes District News
April 07, 2009 11:00 PM
The Burns Lake Chamber of Commerce was host to guest presenters from the Pembina Institute on March 31. Greg Brown a policy analyst, Nikki Skuce an energy campaigner for forest ethics and Josh Patterson, west coast environmental lawyer all put forward a presentation and community forum on the effects the Enbridge pipeline will have on the Burns Lake area and on the entire British Columbia region. It has been reported that the proposed route for the pipeline is in the narrows between Burns Lake and Decker Lake, as a result both communities would feel the impact of the pipeline.
According to Enbridge, the current Gateway proposal includes two parallel 1,170 kilometre pipelines from the tar sands in Alberta out to Kitimat.
The project would also include the construction of a loading facility, including tank farms, near Kitimat. Pembina calculates that this would require the operation of two to three ocean tankers each week. The tankers would begin to travel to the coast of British Columbia, transporting oil and condensate to and from the United States, China, India and other markets. Enbridge estimates that approximately 225 tankers per year would travel along the coast and 140 kilometers up a Fjord to the Kitimat terminal.
Pembina revealed that the approval of the Enbridge pipeline project would require creating a loophole in, or the lifting of a 37 year old federal moratorium on crude oil tanker traffic in the fragile inside waters of B.C. The threats from tanker traffic include air pollution, ballast discharge, terminal accidents during the loading and unloading and most significantly, the risk of oil spills along the B.C coast due to tanker accidents in the unpredictable, ecologically rich waters. The North Coast includes numerous salmon and grey whale migratory routes, at least 650 spawning rivers, the Pacific Flyway and the feeding habitat of humpback whales and orca.
Pembina also report that there are many potential human health risks from the development of oil and gas. Oil spills in particular carry a significant potential for harm through exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), a know carcinogen that persists long after an oil spill has occurred.
“Where oil moves, oil spills, that’s the reality,” said Brown. “In January 2009 an Enbridge pipeline leaked about 4,000 barrels of oil southeast of Fort McMurray at the company’s Cheecham Terminal tank farm, so there is a concern about how safe the technology is, furthermore Enbridge recorded 67 pills from pipelines in 2006 and 65 pipeline spills in 2007” commented Skuce.
Land based oil spills have the potential to contaminate drinking water supplies, also communities face the danger of consuming fish and other wildlife contaminated by spilled oil and other toxic substances used in the oil process.
Enbridge estimated that approximately 4,000 jobs would be created due to the proposed pipeline, but in information supplied by Pembina they state that it is not clear that British Columbians would benefit from those jobs, and estimate that approximately 35 to 40 jobs would be created in Kitimat from the marine terminal. It is also reported that Enbridge may keep the work camps completely separate from existing northern communities, meaning that there would be very little economic benefits for towns from the arrival of workers.
The long term impacts of oil and gas development are significant for all British Columbians. There are currently several proposed pipeline projects on the drawing board for northern B.C. Pembina acknowledges the effects of multiple projects on the land results in serious long term changes for people, wildlife and the land. “When one company builds roads and facilities it makes it so much easier and affordable for the next company to develop other areas nearby” said Brown. A pipeline may provide incentive to develop oil, gas, or coal bed methane because one operational pipeline provides a way to ship these products to market. The new roads would provide easy access for forestry companies to access untouched forests previously too costly to access.
Another effect of the pipeline would be the expansion of the tar sands area in Alberta. Pembina estimates that the tar sands development is one of the most environmentally damaging energy projects on the Earth, and is already a mining project that’s leaves toxic tailing ponds and huge holes that can been seen from the moon. According to Green Peace the Alberta tar sands is Canada’s fastest growing source of greenhouse gas emissions.
Further, Alberta is already Canada’s global warming capital producing 30 per cent of the country’s greenhouse gasses despite having only ten per cent of the population. Tar sands generate three to five times as much greenhouse gas as conventional oil due to the large amounts of energy required to extract them.
The federal government has proposed a joint review panel (JRP), which will conduct public hearings to fulfill the legal regulatory approvals required by the National Energy Board (NEB) and the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act (CEAA). Enbridge needs a certificate of public convenience and necessity from the NEB and a number of approvals and license from the federal government such as the permits to destroy fish habitats, conduct stream crossings and to impact waterways.
Presently the JRP will be comprised of three panel members, two will be from the NEB and the third will be appointed by the federal Minister of the Environment. Pembina reports presently there are no plans to include First Nations representatives or community representatives on the JRP.
In a speech made by Jim Prentice, the Minister for the Environment, he said of future proposed developments, “It is a destination that will see us at the forefront of the industries where we currently excel, oil, natural gas, pipelines, hydro electricity and the orderly development of the oil sands.” Prentice went on to say “We will not aggravate and already weakening economy in the name of environmental progress.”
The concerns of many British Columbian’s about the safety and preservation of their own towns and surrounding areas seems far from the mind of Prentice.
“The Enbridge pipeline will cross over 1,000 streams and rivers, including the upper Fraser and Skeena watersheds, home to two of Canada’s largest wild salmon runs, even a minor spill in either of these areas would be devastating,” reports Skuce.
Steve Greenaway, V.P for public and government affairs for the Enbridge northern gateway pipelines commented that the figures and estimations made by Pembina need to be put into perspective. “The figures presented on the cleanups were likely historical numbers,” commented Greenaway.
Ninety to 100 per cent clean up of an oil spill is achievable on land, while in water, depending on the product up to 70 per cent of the spill evaporates before a clean up. “The difference will be Enbridge’s response, we will have a significant amount of immediate response to throw at any such incident, we will maintain the highest marine standards in the world, and will have a precautionary boom around each of the ships while they are loading and unloading, which is rarely done anywhere in the world,” he said. Greenaway further stated, “We will have an enormous requirement for spill response, providing many benefits to an area where there is already a great deal of marine traffic.” Enbridge plans to have an emergency response team at the ready, with a great deal of equipment on hand that would immediately react to any incidents, either caused by themselves, or anyone else in the area. “Further to this the amount of spills are extremely small and relative in scale when you take into account how much oil is going through the pipelines,” said Greenaway. In 2006, 731 million barrels of oil went through Enbridge’s pipelines.
In response to the suggestion that the Enbridge pipeline would create existing infrastructure for others to benefit from, Greenaway commented that it is not their policy to share their corridor with other companies as it is usually inexperienced human activity that causes the spills along pipelines, however there will be an opportunity for consultation with individual communities as to how much activity they would like to see along the pipeline in their area.
“Our first priority is to prevent a spill,” he said and with pipes half and inch thick and made of high quality steel, Greenaway thinks this is possible. In sensitive areas the pipes will be three quarters of an inch thick.
Greenaway said that in June Enbridge will be holding extensive meetings with businesses and community representatives in all areas along the route so that issues and concerns can be addressed. “We intend to address this in a very open and transparent way,” he commented. “There has been over 200 resumes uploaded to our website in the last week,” he continued. When asked about the amount of jobs that would be available to British Columbians, Greenaway said that half the jobs will be created in B.C., a quarter in Alberta and a quarter in other parts of Canada. Kitimat is likely to see 150 permanent jobs created from ongoing environmental monitoring and tug operations. While there will be a number of jobs available to British Columbians, it is very likely that they are temporary in nature as they will be primarily construction jobs.
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