The report’s lead author is Tom Gunton, director of the resource and environmental planning programme and former deputy environment minister for Mike Harcourt’s NDP provincial government.
Gunton said his team used a standard model used by the U.S. government for projecting spill risk — and the new numbers are much higher than those used by Enbridge.
Gunton said based on spill rates seen with other Enbridge pipelines, he expects 15 spills per year from the Northern Gateway pipeline project.
“It would be nice if at some point somebody said, ‘Let’s go back, Enbridge, and let’s redo this analysis…let’s get all these researchers together and come up with some numbers that everyone has confidence in so we can make an informed decision.’”
B.C. media mogul David Black, who plans to build a new oil refinery in Kitimat, dismisses Gunton’s report.
“I mean, we’ve only got one pipeline and it hasn’t leaked in 60 years,” he said.
“I don’t know where Mr. Gunton gets that stuff from, but it’s purely academic stuff. It’s not rooted in the reality of what a modern pipeline is like.”
B.C.’s only existing oil pipeline is Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain Pipeline, which was ruptured when an excavator working on a sewage line in Burnaby pierced a pipeline in July 2007, releasing more than 250,000 litres of crude oil.
About 70,000 litres of crude oil flowed into Burrard Inlet, sparking a $15-million cleanup. Three companies eventually pleaded guilty to 21 charges in the incident. The pipeline was built in 1957.
Original Article
Source: westcoastnativenews.com
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