In the April 3rd Citizen full page ad, Northern Gateway's Janet Holder refers to "world class voluntary land safety measures Northern Gateway proposed during the review process" which included an additional 39 oil and 52 condensate block valves, pipeline integrity monitoring, and increased pipe wall thickness.
The Joint Review Panel's final report, page 57 states "Northern Gateway said that it decided to increase the wall thickness and operate the pipeline at a lower stress level in response to feedback from the public and Aboriginal groups about the sensitivity and the special habitats the pipeline would cross."
In fact, Northern Gateway did nothing of the sort. Their initial design factor was 0.80, allowing minimum pipe wall thicknesses allowed by Code to contain 2,430 psi, the highest maximum allowable operating pressure ever used for an oil pipeline. Keystone XL uses a design factor of 0.72 for 1,302 psi.
Even with the increased wall thicknesses, NG's revised hydraulic profile shows that, because of elevation differences, with only the pumping stations upstream of the Alberta/BC border operating, and with flow stopped by a closed valve at the BC coast, all oil pipe in the Kitimat River valley would exceed its allowable operating stress. The "voluntary" land safety measures by Northern Gateway in lowering the design factor to 0.72 and increasing the wall thickness have only marginally improved the land safety for this excessively pressurized and steeply graded pipeline.
Chris Peter
Prince George
