[Introductory note: Very reassuring, the "world class" spill response we have been assured of by the corporate and government proponents of exporting Alberta bitumen by tanker! Among other points, consider the excuse offered by the Coast Guard for the delay - that the guity ship did not admit it was the source of the oil. ]
VANCOUVER - Misunderstandings, uncertainty and technical difficulties slowed the emergency response to a toxic fuel spill in Vancouver's English Bay by nearly two hours, a review has found.
‘First the verdict, then the evidence.’ That was the gist of the Crown Solicitor’s response to Chippewas of the Thames First Nation’s complaint that it had not been consulted about Enbridge’s dangerous Line 9 pipeline project.
As summarized in the Piperisksblog, the Crown lawyer at a June 16 hearing in Toronto claimed that ‘it is pointless to allow Crown Consultation [with First Nations] until after [regulatory] approvals are given.’
If one were to search for an example of the utterly and inherently life, climate, and economy destroying impacts of fossil fuel burning, they wouldn’t have to look too far. They could look to the rapidly destabilizing glaciers now putting our coastal cities, our island nations in dire peril.
In a July 23 webinar, members of North Dakota’s environmental community spoke about the impacts of the second-largest fracking oil field in the United States, the Bakken Shale.
Earthworks, a non-profit American environmental agency, presented the webinar entitled "Inside the Bakken: National Impacts and How You Can Help."
The battle for Kinder Morgan Inc.’s Trans Mountain pipeline is bleeding into lobbying over another major infrastructure project in British Columbia – a proposal for a new shipping terminal near Vancouver’s Fraser River Estuary.
Advocacy groups campaigning against the proposed marine terminal, called Roberts Bank Terminal 2, have said they are concerned it could serve as a contingency port for the expanded Trans Mountain pipeline, even as the port authority and Kinder Morgan say using the expanded port for shipping oil is not in the cards.
Five years ago, in the middle of the night, an oil pipeline operated by Enbridge ruptured outside of Marshall, Michigan. It took more than 17 hours before the Canadian company finally cut off the flow, but by then, more than a million gallons of tar sands crude had oozed into Talmadge Creek. The oil quickly flowed into the Kalamazoo River, forcing dozens of families to evacuate their homes. Oil spills of that magnitude are always disastrous, but the Kalamazoo event was historically damaging.
Five years ago, in the middle of the night, an oil pipeline operated by Enbridge ruptured outside of Marshall, Michigan. It took more than 17 hours before the Canadian company finally cut off the flow, but by then, more than a million gallons of tar sands crude had oozed into Talmadge Creek. The oil quickly flowed into the Kalamazoo River, forcing dozens of families to evacuate their homes. Oil spills of that magnitude are always disastrous, but the Kalamazoo event was historically damaging.
An oil sands pipeline rupture that has coated a large swath of muskeg south of Fort McMurray with bitumen, sand and salty water may have gone undetected by an automated monitoring system for more than two weeks, Nexen executives say.
The exact time and cause of the massive spill is still under investigation. The leak was discovered on July 15 by a worker at the Long Lake oil sands project. On Wednesday, Chinese-owned Nexen Energy ULC revealed the leak may have started as long ago as June 29. The company’s computerized monitoring system failed to detect the breach.
