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Photo Credit: Trans Mountain Twitter Account
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Marine spill response experts gather in Vancouver for a conference on
June 18 – the same day federal Cabinet is expected to issue its decision on the
fate of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion.
The 2019 Clean Pacific Conference & Exhibition is aimed at the
various agencies responsible for marine spill prevention and response
operations in the Western United States and Canada. The timing of the Trans
Mountain decision makes it particularly timely.
Trans Mountain Corporation, the federally owned pipeline company, is
poised to recommence construction of its $7.4 billion upgrade / expansion
project should it receive the go-ahead. Of the many facets of the project
that triggered public discussion, the most controversial one is probably the
question of how a tanker ship problem would be handled if something went wrong
between the Burnaby terminal and open sea.
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Photo Credit: Trans Mountain Twitter Account
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There is an incredibly low probability that a cargo of diluted bitumen,
a form of crude oil from the Alberta oil sands, could be released into the water.
One expert calculated a worst-case incident as a possibility once every 2,000
years. Nevertheless, extensive investments were required by the federal
regulator when the pipeline expansion was approved three years ago.
On June 18, the public will have the chance to see for itself what spill
response looks like when a simulation is staged for conference attendees. The
water demonstration by West Coast Marine Response Corporation (WCMRC) will take place
from noon to 1:30 pm at Vancouver's Canada Place. Vessels and equipment
from WCMRC’s South Coast and Vancouver Island fleets will be on display,
including the new class of coastal response vessels.
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Photo Credit: Trans Mountain Twitter Account
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Trans Mountain itself has been conducting exercises locally, in an
effort to confirm local geographic response plans and to refresh personnel
on spill response tactics in a river environment. The company posted these
photos to its Twitter account on May 29.
Resource Works will be attending Clean Pacific, so watch here for
further information. Check our 2017 Citizen's Guide to Tanker Safety and Spill Response
for a broad understanding of the topic.
Stewart Muir is Executive Director of Resource Works, and a
historian and award-winning journalist, with a passion for the natural legacies
of British Columbia.
A graduate of Simon Fraser University and the
University of British Columbia, he was a director of The Nature Trust of
British Columbia from 2006 until 2014. During a fellowship at the renowned Centre
for the Study of European Expansion at Leiden University in The Netherlands,
he studied economic botany and the long-term consequences of deforestation and
climate change.
Stewart Muir was
a contributing author to The Sea Among Us: Life and History of The Strait of
Georgia, an award-winning book edited by Richard Beamish and Sandy
McFarlane. Published in November 2014, The Sea Among Us covers the natural and
human history of a body of water that is of fundamental importance in every
sense to all British Columbians. In April 2015, the title was awarded the BC
Book Prize as "the most outstanding work that contributes to an
understanding of British Columbia."
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