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A proposed oil pipeline running from Alberta to the B.C. coast gets a critical look by National Geographic, a media company that has a potential reach of 280-million people each month.
The article, Pipeline Through Paradise, looks at the coastline and the potential for mis-haps. The Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipelines Project is a proposed $5.5-billion pipeline running 657 kilometres from Bruderheim, Alberta to Kitimat, located on the central coast of British Columbia. The oil would then be sent overseas on tanker traffic.
The article describes the Queen of the North disaster, when human error resulted in a passenger ferry running into Gil Island. The boat, which sank 1,400 feet under water, now leaks fuel from tanks that hold several thousand gallons of diesel. The 2006 disaster also caused the deaths of two people.
National Geographic extrapolates that a recent shipping disaster like the Queen of North can certainly apply to any proposed shipping in the region.
“I teach math at the school here,” said Cameron Hill, a member of the Hartley Bay Band Council, in the article.
“If I were to express the Queen of the North as an exponent, I’d say it was an squared disaster. The potential damage from those oil tankers is to the 100th power.”
The pipeline was first proposed in mid-2000 when Enbridge signed a cooperation agreement with PetroChina, which later withdrew from the agreement due to project delays. Just over a year ago Enbridge submitted a project application to the National Energy Board seeking approval to build the pipeline. Enbridge has also been trying to tie up support of the First Nations’ bands where the pipeline will cross.
A westbound pipeline would carry crude oil an and eastbound pipeline would carry natural gas, which would help push the heavy crude to the coast. A new marine terminal would also be built at Kitimat.
Enbridge says it has decades of experience in pipeline construction and environmental protection.
“We are committed to constructing and operating Northern Gateway to the highest environmental and safety standards to ensure environmental protection,” says the company on its site that promotes the planned pipeline.
Among some allowances that the company makes for safety, all vessels entering Kitimat Marine Terminal will be modern and double-hulled; operational safety limits will be established to cover visibility, wind and sea conditions; and escort tugs will have extensive first response capabilities to provide immediate assistance if required.
“Giant tankers—some nearly as long as the Empire State Building is tall, loaded with condensate or up to 2.15 million barrels of crude—would thread between a jigsaw of islands to and from Kitimat,” writes National Geographic.
According to the U.S. Department of State, National Geographic, along with its sister publications and other media properties, has a reach of over 280 million people worldwide each month.
Image of B.C. coast is from kbear65’s photostream.
3 Comments
Rickman2012
selling our oil to china ,,, might as well sell our flag to them
Me
National Geographic left wing pinko commie rag….nothing but a bunch of “what if’s and maybe’s”
Adanvers
I think Fukishima should be an example of neglect where profit and demand outstrips environmental protection. You think enbridge and the pressure from the chinese government/asian markets for oil delivery will provide a safely run operation? The place the oil is being shipped does not have the same consideration for our environment and fishery we depend on.