….also sent to Mayor Seattle and PI
Our good neighbours in Washington State are concerned …and rightly so , in my opinion. http://www.seattlepi.com/local/politics/article/A-pipeline-next-door-Canadian-project-means-34-9223269.php
Their concerns have been demonstrated for sometime now…when in 2010 they produced a report to study the risks of the ever increasing marine traffic in out shared Salish Sea…see link below;Vessel Traffic Risk Assessment (VTRA): Preventing Oil Spills from Large Ships and Barges In Northern Puget Sound & Strait of Juan de Fuca January 2014
page 157 “CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS A detailed consideration of traffic levels is particularly important as one moves forward to considering risk and POTENTIAL changes in risk from the commercial projects being proposed for the northern Puget Sound and southern British Columbia over the next decade or so….To put it simply, keeping everything else the same, when traffic increases risk increases, unless mitigated. Further, there is no guarantee that risk increases due to traffic increases can be fully mitigated.”
Meanwhile; “Trans Mountain(Kinder Morgan) submits that ….there are no impacts….that cannot be mitigated ” !
Trans Mountain (KM) submits that by building on its existing system, paralleling the existing right-of-way and implementing well-known and proven mitigation, there are no environmental or social impacts that cannot be mitigated,” the report states..
…. to ‘MITIGATE’ is to “make milder’…or “less intense or severe”…so upon rereading the above you can assume how much mitigation VTRA can offer…or accept… and how much mediation is Kinder Morgan offering ??? Further ,KM claim that well known and proven mitigation lies at the center of the argument….We’ve seen lots of chatter about a hoped for ‘world class‘ bitumen containment and recovery ‘ . Maybe Kinder Morgan and our science loving Prime Minister could arrange for a public demonstration of this magical contraption….while a dilbit laden tanker is hung up on a reef, spewing oil profusely ,at night , during a tide change…with a gale blowing….and then and send everyone a measure of the MITIGATING EFFECTIVENESS …hopefully to quiet ‘the suspicious coastal residents in BC and Washington State’…OK ?
I have asked continually asked…why are our leaders are shying from the promised science…before deciding…even a Statistics 101 student could show the increased probability of a dilbit spill as the number and volume of dilbit sailings increase in these busy waters…Interestingly…our Federal government is now searching for Chief Science Officer….which should be put to work to demonstrate ,with an independent risk assessment of the BC coast(possibly in collaboration with US scientists)…that there is a safer tanker route ,than that proposed by Kinder Morgan…thus potentially removing any extra dilbit tankers from Salish Sea ….!
obvious …even our new Prime Minister promised to ‘listen ad use science’ ,to help decide…yet we see little science …
Most of the BC and nearby Washington State communities would prefer that these extra dilbit tanker sailing DID NOT NEED TO HAPPEN in our Salish Sea !
The Canadian government has recommended approval of this KM pipeline/tanker plan… ….subject to dealing with 157 conditions….somehow ,though likely NOT publically….???
One must assume that this project will be OK’d after review of the’conditions’….
Yes I’ve appealed many times for a common sense approach to building this vital diluted bitumen (dilbit)export plan…but with little response or acknowledgement…Most of our local leaders are likewise concerned .. ….Yes a call from your leaders…to our government leaders might be helpful…many of our community leaders are likewise most upset by this unwelcome increase in dilbit laden tankers travelling our busiest waters…Vancouver Mayor, Gregor Robertson and Burnaby Mayor , Derek Corrigan along with other local community leaders might appreciate your input to assist in seeking a less threatening tanker routing plan…Our Provincial Premier, Christy Clark might listen…as she soon faces our provincial electorate…while she sits on the fence now, she might be a ‘good listener’ if somehow we can find a way to ‘correct’ this goofy Kinder Morgan proposal ?
Bitumen transport issues 