BC has “extreme concern” over Enbridge’s testimony
Posted October 10, 2012 8:33 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
PRINCE GEORGE (NEWS1130) – The province is extremely concerned by the responses heard at the Northern Gateway pipeline hearing in Prince George.
After two days of questions, BC’s Environment Minister Terry Lake says he’s disappointed in Enbridge. Lake says cross-examination showed analysis of geological challenges was incomplete.
“We have concerns about the level of detail of mapping around the terrain of the pipeline and also the ability to detect any leak in a very fast and responsive manner,” notes Lake.
He believes the info that Enbridge has presented shows the company isn’t taking the province seriously.
“We’re concerned about the leak detection system, of the leaks the company has had in the United States, the vast majority of those were not discovered by their automatic systems.”
Lake says while Enbridge said they were aware of systems that could detect very small leaks, “the company would only say that they will continue to study them.”
He added that Enbridge “would also not commit to using automatic shut-down in the case of a leak being detected, but would instead rely on manual shut-down decisions.”
Meanwhile, a top executive for Enbridge says there won’t be a jump in oil spills despite a projected five-fold increase in the number of oil tankers if more pipelines are allowed to be built to BC’s coast.
Janet Holder says the company has done work in the Douglas Channel, outside of Kitimat and all the simulations and models show there won’t be a problem.
Oil industry officials told a pipeline forum at the BC Chamber of Commerce that tanker traffic will increase from 100 to 550 ships per year on the coast if the Northern Gateway and Kinder Morgan pipelines are allowed to go through.
Holder told the same forum that technology to detect leaks is always evolving and the company has also made progress on that front over the past five years.
The province will continue with the cross-examination of Enbridge, this time with emergency preparedness the focus.
