Burnaby mayor irritated by Kinder Morgan pipeline exposure

Burnaby’s mayor says a Kinder Morgan pipeline incident that drew citizen concern over the weekend highlights the dangers of operating high pressure oil pipelines in urban areas.  

“These are the sorts of incidents that occur when pipelines are put near urban infrastructure,” said Mayor Derek Corrigan, “which is exactly why we are fighting so hard to ensure that Kinder Morgan’s proposed new pipeline never gets built in Burnaby."

The city’s engineering department said Monday its contractor was doing work on a culvert on Burnaby Mountain when the slope became unstable on Friday, following a rain event.  That caused concern about an underlying Kinder Morgan petroleum pipeline.   

The company was then brought in to further expose its own pipeline, and support it with crane cables, just in case more of the mountain came sliding down, said city engineer James Lota.  

Some citizens worried the petroleum line was still flowing fuels at this point.  Kinder Morgan did not answer a question about whether that was true.