Tankers/pipelines don’t fail ,people fail …due to fatigue/stress. lack of training, deferred maintenance ,etc.
Society (investors/public) must rely on statistical risk assessments to determine the probable life of infrastructure .The NEB recommended approval of TMX without any independent science to help protect communities most likely to be impacted when that inevitable tanker spill occurs .While the TMX risk assessment suggested 1000+ year incident cycle…this does not prevent the spill from happening TOMORROW !
Why didn’t the government science/engineer community demand that their employer(government) not proceed …until they offered independent risk assessment counsel. The engineers code of ethics demands such behavior…engineers must “ Be aware of, and ensure that clients and employers are made aware of, societal and environmental consequences of actions or projects and endeavour to interpret engineering issues to the public in an objective and truthful manner.
Carl Shalansky, P. Eng. (Retired)
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Bitumen transport issues 