There seems to be a fifth column in Kitimat under the guise of an unelected economic development committee, busily scurrying around trying to muster support for Enbridge in order to get their garbage oil – bitumen – intoVery Large Crude Carriers.
Answerable to nobody, they somehow will try to tell you that just because Methanex shipped out one million tonnes of product without any problem, Enbridge will do that too.
Comparing methanol with the garbage oil Enbridge wants to ship through our area is a stretch that is beyond imagination.
Bitumen is a concoction of oilsand, natural gas condensate, is extremely toxic and cannot be recovered when it gets spilled, in water or on land.
The pipeline will cross well over 700 fish-bearing streams and follow a major river and there is no guarantee the pipeline will now have a failure.
The terrain alone will tell you that rockslides and avalanches will occur. We had major gas line breaks and the garbage oil pipeline will not be immune to those same conditions.
Now a sane person would say, “Why not refine the bitumen at source in Alberta, provide employment for thousands and then ship it through a smaller pipeline to Vancouver, following the existing Kinder Morgan pipeline and using smaller tankers?”
Of course, the bottom line may not be so profitable, but it would be a lot safer than what is proposed today.
British Columbia will be taking all the risks and have very few benefits from this project as it now stands.
Walmart has more employees than the lousy 30 jobs that remain in Kitimat when the pipeline is finished.
In my opinion the review started at Kitamaat Village is rigged and has become political. Harper has jumped the gun already and is favour of the project.
The only thing that will stand in the way is the opposition from the North.
Let these politicians know we are against this project as it now stands.
Hans Sanou,
Kitimat.
