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A second opinion on pipeline

Regarding a group of Prince George doctors full page advertisement to oppose the Northern Gateway oil pipeline project.

Regarding a group of Prince George doctors full page advertisement to oppose the Northern Gateway oil pipeline project.

I believe Janet Holder is right,when she says in her letter she believes responsible opinion needs to be based on sound evidence, and unfortunately these doctors have missed the mark.

Dr. Marie Hay says in her article in July 18th's Citizen "There is no doubt this pipeline will leak", and since this oil is heavy it will sink into the land and water and be there for a hundred years, and once the land and water has been destroyed,we will not be able to re-cover from that.

Are such statements based on sound evidence? Fort McMurray has hundreds of square kilometers of oil-soaked land that people have lived on for hundreds of years, so what would there be to recover from if a patch of B.C. land had some oil in it, , and of course if some oil

accumulated in deep pools in a river. It could be pumped out of there in less than a hundred years.

If there is some problems with the proposed Gateway pipeline more than with the tens of thousands of miles of pipelines that safely deliver oil in North America every day; then perhaps the doctors should have a different spokesman, as Hay seems to give opinions not

based on facts.

We have a pipeline carrying oil near Prince George which has been operating for forty years, not spilling a drop of oil into lakes and rivers in this area. It was built to a lower standard and with thinner steel than proposed for this new pipeline.

Hay says she has been told by natives from the McMurray area that it is a health hazard to drink the water, breathe the air, or eat wild game there. This, of course, is all hearsay, and I believe has no basis in facts. She says that the oil sands lands are being destroyed by the extraction and will never be recovered back to what it was.Of course such lands are already recovered, planted with trees, willows and grass, with wild life flourishing on it, and clean oil-free soil.

If we drive cars, oil has to be moved. Spills from pipelines has not destroyed a single river or lake in North America and no human life has been lost to it.

Svend Serup

Prince George