In a worst-case oil spill scenario in the Burrard Inlet with no cleanup, 50 to 90 per cent of the oil would reach the shore within hours, endangering human health, the environment and the economy.
That’s just one of the conclusions from an oil spill mapping study, commissioned by the Tsleil-Waututh Nation and the cities of Burnaby and Vancouver.
“Of the many severe risks posed by the proposed Kinder Morgan expansion, the potential for spills in Burrard Inlet has always been a huge concern for the City of Burnaby,” Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan said in a joint press release. “Though the pipeline would end in Burnaby, the risks clearly would extend far beyond Burnaby’s boundaries to all of the municipalities bordering Burrard Inlet – and ultimately to all those who use, value and benefit from our thriving harbor and the innumerable economic, environmental and recreational benefits it provides. This report illustrates why the project Kinder Morgan is proposing can never be allowed on our coast.”
Genwest Systems conducted the study, using a two-dimensional mapping system. The study covered spill scenarios, assuming there would be no cleanup efforts, in four locations: the First Narrows, the Second Narrows, the Westridge Marine Terminal and the outer harbour. In all four scenarios, 50 to 90 per cent of the oil would reach the shorelines within hours.
The study was released with an animated video, showing how a First Narrows spill would spread throughout the Inlet, as far as Port Moody, in 72 hours. The First Narrows spill scenario was for 16 million litres of crude, which represents 20 per cent of the load for a typical oil tanker filling up at Kinder Morgan’s Westridge Marine Terminal in Burnaby.
The study also reviewed Kinder Morgan’s own oil spill trajectory model and found it was a reasonable representation of a spill, but there were “at least two serious shortcomings.”
The first is that Kinder Morgan’s study did not account for the fact that beached oil generally gets washed back into the water and spreads more. The second shortfall was the spill model for the Westridge Marine Terminal in Burnaby was unrealistic because it assumed the containment boom would be in place and working, therefor creating a much smaller spill scenario. Assuming the containment boom will be 100 per cent effective is inappropriate and “not the historical norm,” according to the report.
The Tsleil-Waututh Nation, which is based on the North Shore but has traditional territory in Burnaby, released its own video. It shows eight days following a spill of 8,000 cubic metres of oil at the Westridge terminal, assuming there would be no cleanup. The video shows Burnaby's north shore coated in oil, as the tides wash crude in and out of the Inlet.
Kinder Morgan spokesperson Ali Hounsell said the company stands by its assessments but would analyze the new report.
“We’ll be doing a more detailed review of it. It’s a pretty lengthy report,” she said. “The main things one has to ask … is that they’ve considered things like spill response. Did they consider that Western Canada Marine Response Corporation is there and would respond to the spill or is it completely unmitigated?”
(The report’s executive summary stated the four scenarios were based on the assumption there was no cleanup.)
Hounsell said the report was all part of the NEB hearing process.
“We know intervenors have the option to generate their own evidence and present it, and it will be considered by the NEB closely, and we will review it as well. At the end of the day, if people can produce evidence that we think can improve our project, I’m sure will look at that and the NEB will as well,” she said.
Kinder Morgan’s application to twin the Trans Mountain pipeline, which runs oil from Alberta to Burnaby, is before the National Energy Board. The proposal includes expanding the Burnaby Mountain tank farm and the marine terminal, where tankers fill up with crude.
Vancouver, Burnaby and the Tsleil-Waututh are all intervenors in the hearing, and the jointly-commissioned study is part of the evidence they’re filing on May 27.
The oil spill study comes on the heels of a damning report issued by Burnaby’s deputy fire chief on tank farm safety, which will also be entered as evidence. Both Burnaby and Vancouver are collecting residents’ concerns on the proposed pipeline expansion. In Burnaby, call 604-297-4400 to comment or email [email protected].
Read the full Genwest report here: Genwest study
