Editor:
The issue of the twinning of the Trans Mountain Pipeline through Burnaby is crucial for B.C. because it involves a huge risk for the city of Vancouver and the surrounding coastline.
Supporters of this project say that pipelines are a better way to ship the diluted bitumen, but statistics show otherwise.
The truth is that there is no safe way to transport this highly-toxic product.
There have been 8,360 incidents of pipeline spills in Saskatchewan in the past 10 years.
On July 21 of this year more than 200,000 litres of oil poured into the North Saskatchewan River.
Alberta has had more than 28,000 spills since 1980.
China-owned Nexen pipeline (state of the art, pipe within pipe) spilled five million litres before it was even detected.
Vancouver is one of the greenest, environmentally-conscious cities in the world, a multi-cultural, international port in a beautiful setting with a vibrant tourism industry and they would be vulnerable to the greatest risk. The marine terminal has a 75 per cent chance of a spill, and the tankers (34 per month) is estimated at 55 to 95 per cent.
The benefits of this project definitely do not outweigh the risks.
Pipeline spills along the route are a virtual certainty, and could be disastrous.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s proposed new carbon tax does nothing to solve the problem of climate change, which originates at the source: the tar sands.
Why can’t a refinery be built in Alberta?
The recent sinking of the Nathan Stewart in Bella Bella shows that our spill response is slow and inadequate.
Now the clam beds the Heiltsuk people depend on as a food source are destroyed and their coastline littered with debris.
Money and jobs are not sufficient justification for building another pipeline. What happens in Alberta should stay in Alberta.
It is sheer folly to allow this project to proceed.
Michael Atwood
Chimney Lake
