Safety and climate concerns as oil-by-rail surges forward in North America

On April 23, Canada's minister of transport, Lisa Raitt, announced changes to railway transportation regulations in Canada that she says will make safe the rapidly growing transport of crude oil and Alberta tar sands bitumen in North America.

Raitt's changes come in response to citizen pressure following a string of spectacular oil train crashes in the past nine months, most particularly the crash in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec on July 6, 2013 that killed 47 people.

TransCanada Pipeline Safety Audit Underscores Concerns: Council Of Canadians

CALGARY - Problems flagged in the National Energy Board's audit of TransCanada Corp.'s pipeline safety practices should have Canadians worried, a group fighting that company's proposed Energy East pipeline said Tuesday.

The audit report, released Monday, found TransCanada (TSX:TRP) to be non-compliant in four of nine areas it examined: hazard identification, risk assessment and control; operational control in upset or abnormal operating condition; inspection, measurement and monitoring, and management review.

Crude Oil Rail Transport Could Get New Hazard Standards

The federal transport minister is considering a number of changes to how crude oil is transported across Canada by rail.

The move would come after last summer's tragedy in Lac-Mégantic, Que., where 47 people died after a runaway train carrying tankers of crude oil derailed and set off massive fireball explosion in the centre of town.

Transport Minister Lisa Raitt set up three working groups in November that are looking at, among other things, how crude oil is classified.

Right now, crude oil is listed as a flammable substance, but not a highly explosive one.

Another working group is examining whether companies should be required to have emergency response assistance plans for the shipment of crude oil.

That exists now for hazardous goods, and includes having specialized response teams along the route in case there is an accident.

It's also a sign Transport Canada understands there is a need to treat crude oil differently.

The working groups will report back with recommendations in January. The department will then come up with proposed regulations for consultation in February.

Original Article
Source: huffingtonpost.ca/
Author: cbc

Oil spill risk addressed by West Coast tanker safety report

Potential polluters should be prepared for a worst-case scenario and face unlimited liability in the case of an oil spill from one of their tanker ships, a government-appointed panel recommends.

Federal Minister of Transport Lisa Raitt and Minister of Natural Resources Joe Oliver were in Vancouver Tuesday afternoon to release a report about oil tanker safety on the West Coast.

“No project will proceed unless it is safe for Canadians and safe for the environment,” said Oliver.

Nearly 300 Pipeline Spills In North Dakota Have Gone Unreported To The Public Since January 2012

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — North Dakota, the nation's No. 2 oil producer behind Texas, recorded nearly 300 oil pipeline spills in less than two years, state documents show. None was reported to the public, officials said.

According to records obtained by The Associated Press, the pipeline spills — many of them small — are among some 750 "oil field incidents" that have occurred since January 2012 without public notification.

Saws Cut Off 4,000 Fingers a Year. This Gadget Could Fix That

Gerald Wheeler caught the hot dog demonstration at the International Woodworking Fair in Atlanta in 2002. A man took an Oscar Meyer wiener and pushed it into the blade of a table saw spinning 4,000 times per minute. As the hot dog touched the whirring saw, the blade came to a dead stop in about three one-thousandths of a second, leaving the dog with only a minor nick.

The saw was equipped with a safety device called SawStop that could distinguish between wood and flesh and then stop the blade fast enough to prevent a gruesome injury. Wheeler was amazed. As the operator of a wood shop in Hot Springs, Arkansas, he was all too aware of the unforgiving nature of table saws. Not long before, two of his employees had been maimed within a few weeks of each other. Wheeler felt awful about the injuries, the loss of two good workers, the $95,000 in medical bills, the doubling of his workers compensation rates. Watching SawStop in action, Wheeler thought: If only this had come along sooner.

Quality concerns arose before TransCanada pipeline blast

A CBC News investigation has learned that TransCanada Pipelines — the Canadian company behind the controversial U.S. Keystone XL pipeline proposal — was troubled by quality-assurance problems on another recent American pipeline that exploded.

The Bison natural-gas pipeline exploded in a remote area near Gillette, Wyo., on July 20, 2011, six months after it went into service.

The explosion blew out a 12-metre section of pipeline and shook buildings more than a kilometre away, but caused no injuries or death.

Enbridge Northern Gateway Promises Unsatisfactory: BC Minister

VANCOUVER - B.C.'s environment minister says the company behind the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline has not yet instilled confidence in the provincial government that the project will be safe.

Terry Lake said Enbridge (TSX:ENB) is making lots of promises about how it would mitigate environmental risks, but is so far short on providing solid evidence and action.

Decaying concrete raising concerns at Canada’s aging nuclear plants

Decaying concrete at nuclear power plants is the latest concern for nuclear safety authorities.

At Quebec’s sole atomic power station, Gentilly-2, eroding concrete has prompted federal licensing officials to suggest that any provincial attempt to refurbish and re-license the 30-year-old plant must satisfy federal concerns over the aging concrete’s ability to stand up to another two or three decades of service.

The move comes as economic pressures force nuclear utilities to consider refurbishing their nuclear plants and operating them well past their 25- to 30-year initial lives.

Four years after high-rise explosion, safety measures not in place

Nearly four years after an explosion in an underground hydro vault tore through an east-end Toronto high rise and forced 1,000 residents out of their homes, potentially hundreds of apartment buildings throughout the city don’t have essential safety equipment that could prevent such a blast.

“It was like a bomb went off,” Romelda Morson said of the explosion that left her homeless for two months. “The whole building shook.”

A heat detector could have prevented the fiery blast at 2 Secord Ave. on July 20, 2008, that left nine fire fighters injured, the Office of the Fire Marshal says.

Cuts to Canadian Coast Guard raise safety fears

Cuts to the Canadian Coast Guard, including the closure of Vancouver’s Kitsilano search and rescue station, are raising questions about whether boaters in trouble will have to wait longer for help to arrive.

In addition to the station in Canada’s largest port, the Conservative government is also planning to shut down as many as 10 of 22 Marine Communications and Traffic Services Centres, which are essentially like air traffic control centres, but for boats on the oceans. The centres in Inuvik, Thunder Bay and Rivière au Renard, Que., will close. Comox, Tofino, Vancouver and St. John’s are scheduled to have teleconference meetings Friday on their future.

Kitsilano is the third search and rescue station the government has shut down, said Christine Collins, national president of the Union of Canadian Transportation Employees.

Farmers’ markets and grocery stores are subject to the same scrutiny, health official says

Food safety experts say there’s no clear winner in food safety between farmers’ markets and grocery stores, with both types of operations subject to rigorous health and safety inspections.

Comments made Feb. 7 by Loblaws’ chief Galen Weston about the safety of farmers’ markets may have caused an unintended stir in the industry, but it’s raised some important questions about how food is monitored once it gets to shelves and stalls.

“Farmers’ markets are great . . .” Weston began during a speech to a crowd of 600 at the Canadian Food Summit in Toronto. “One day they’re going to kill some people though.”

“I’m just saying that to be dramatic though,” he quickly added.

But Jim Chan, manager of food safety for Toronto Public Health, said food safety comes down to who’s running the show, not the type of operation they run.

“I won’t say that the risk level in all farmers’ markets is higher than other food premises. You cannot say that,” Chan said. “It’s all depending on the person who is operating that particular site.”

Municipal health inspectors are in charge of inspecting all food premises, including grocery stores and markets.

Ottawa rejects need for safety legislation in wake of cyclist's death

The federal government has no plans to bring in legislation that advocates say would have prevented a Toronto mother and cyclist from being dragged to her death under a truck Monday. Not enough evidence it would work, Transport Canada says.

“Unfortunately, side guards are not a guarantee of safety,” spokeswoman Mélanie Emma Quesnel said Wednesday. “Transport Canada has not found research data indicating that side guards would be effective in Canada. Studies completed don’t provide sufficient evidence to move forward with a regulation.”

Opposition politicians and road-safety advocates beg to differ.

For more than a decade, they’ve called for rules requiring big trucks to have guards installed to prevent cyclists, pedestrians or even motorists from being dragged under in the event of a collision. A 1998 coroner’s report into Toronto-area cycling deaths recommended they be considered as a lifesaving option. In much of Europe, they’ve been mandatory for years.