On Kitimat…

Posted on: Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Posted at: 8:20 PM

The proposed oil pipeline from Bruderheim, AB to Kitimat, BC will spill. It is not a question of if, but when — and by how much.

FYI, oil and gas pipeline incidents and accidents are a regular occurrence in Canada.

The majority are classified as minor, discharging less than 10 litres and are generally contained without directly impacting the environment.

Since 2010, the Transportation Safety Board of Canada has logged more than 100 different oil and gas pipeline incidents and accidents.

Of course, the goal of the oil and gas industry is to have zero incidents and accidents.

There is an obvious lack of [provincial and federal] environmental, as well as health and safety legislation and regulations that protect the health and safety of all Canadians — Canadian workers and residents of Canada along any of the oil and gas pipelines across Canada.

Enbridge and TransCanada have been involved in nearly three quarters of the reported incidents and accidents, including more than 20 incidents during just the first phase of the Keystone Pipeline — a TransCanada project.

Last year, the Rainbow Pipeline leaked 28,000 barrels (4.5 million litres) of crude oil.

Didn’t hear about the Rainbow Pipeline leak? I’m not surprised…

What we need to focus on now, however, is what have we learned from the Rainbow Pipeline?

We have learned that we are not prepared.

We need comprehensive and strong [provincial and federal] legislation and regulations to cover the following:

• Integrity     READ: Aging Infrastructure — more than half of these oil and gas pipelines are more than 20 years old and there are some oil and gas pipelines that are even more than 40 years old, READ: Maintenance Required. Or, these aging oil and gas pipelines will remain an incident or accident just waiting to happen.
• Transparency     READ: Message Management — when a pipeline incident or accident occurs, oil and gas companies in Canada need to be less concerned with corporate reputation, investor confidence and public relations and more concerned with the incident or accident clean-up details, environmental impact, as well as health and safety information.
• Accountability     READ: Accepting Responsibility — oil and gas companies often do not pay 100% of the costs associated with a pipeline incident or accident; in fact, insurance, READ: the Canadian taxpayers, often are on the hook for a significant amount of the repairs or clean-up expenditures.

P.S. The Harper government is not going to put legislation forth to protect the environment or Canadians.

P.P.S. The Harper government is all about de-regulation, at the expense of much and many.

2012-01-10  »  somecanuckchick