If implemented, the Enbridge pipeline would prove a backward step for British
Columbia, as well as reflect badly on Canada as a nation. The outcome of this proposed
venture is that British Columbians would be guaranteed to experience oil spills along the
breadth of the pipeline, along with imminent marine oil spills that would decimate the
most beautiful and unique natural coastline left in the world today.
In respect to pipeline oil spills, we as stewards of this land between the Rocky
Mountains and the Pacific Ocean should not be taken in by slick rhetoric being promoted
by Enbridge and our heavy-handed federal government. Their assurance that there
would be no spills is based on absolutely no facts to support such claims. Between 1999
and 2010 Enbridge has had over 800 oil spills on their pipelines. Enbridge experiencing
more than 800 pipeline spills over a 12 year span is at the very least a 95 per cent guarantee that
we would indeed experience numerous oil spills if the pipeline was built.
And the morality of selling the dirtiest crude oil ever produced also promotes Canadians as money-hungry phonies. We know humanity is responsible for the ever-escalating amount of C02 in the atmosphere, which is directly contributing to global warming, and yet we also know that it is imperative we find alternate sources of clean energy. Yet we do not strive to switch to clean energy. other than a few token efforts.
Of course the paramount aspect surrounding the Enbridge pipeline is the
horrendous damage inflicted with a marine oil spill. It defies all logic to suggest our west
coast would be immune from a marine oil spill disaster considering the amount of tanker
traffic involved. There is one sea route out of Kitimat and that is down the Douglas Channel.
And the one exit out of Douglas Channel is into Wright Sound. The last major ship lost
on BC's west coast occurred in Wright Sound on the 22nd of March 2006. BC Ferries
`Queen of the North' ran aground and sank off Gil Island with the loss of two lives. Had
it not been for the good people of Hartley Bay rushing to the assistance of the ship over
one-hundred people would quite likely have lost their lives. The sea route from Douglas
Channel to open waters is extremely confined and dangerous.
The sea route out of Douglas Channel and out into open waters is narrow, twisting
in all directions and simply not adequate for mammoth oil tankers. Today's oil tankers
are by far the largest ships in the world. Some are up to 1250 ft long, 180 ft wide, with a
loaded draught of 100 ft. They are extremely difficult to maneuver, and loaded could
take up to eight kilometres and as long as fifteen minutes to come to a complete stop. Trying
to squeeze one of these mammoth ships around the confines of Gil Island is a sure
disaster in the making. We must stop the construction of this pipeline.
John Francis
Prince George
