Collectively, we take great exception to your recent PG Citizen Editorial of July 12 and 13, 2012 on the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline proposal. Most of us named below made an effort earlier this week to study, prepare and provide oral or written statements to the Northern Gateway Pipeline Joint Review Panel here in Prince George earlier this week, all of us professors at UNBC and all with considerable expertise and experience in one or more facets relating to the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline.
We lent our voices of opposition to all others heard by the Joint Review Panel, including First Nation, rancher, student, business owner, mechanic, and citizen, that were to a person, opposed to the Enbridge proposal. Yes, not a single supporter in the bunch. Perhaps all of us missed something?
Pipeline spills were a concern raised by many presenters. The editor may be a better mathematician than Enbridge, but we take equal issue with his back-of-the-envelope number fudging..
We hope northern British Columbians will study the true risks associated with the proposed Enbridge pipeline. Concerned citizens could begin by reading the sobering assessment of Enbridge safety records by David Olive, Business Reporter for the Toronto Star, published July 13, 2012, entitled: "Enbridge, TransCanada pipeline safety is a pipedream".
Mr. Olive, drawing from the US-NTSB report and reprimand of Enbridge earlier this week, noted that Enbridge knew of approximately 15,000 defects in its Michigan pipeline 5 years before its Kalamazoo River spill in 2010, but excavated (and presumably inspected) only 900 of them.
If Kalamazoo was in fact a 1 in 15,000 year event as Enbridge states, then how do we explain the 804 other Enbridge pipeline spills between 1999 and 2010 (Enbridge data) - that's around 80 spills a year!
Quoting Mr. Olive: "Realistically, how can one make a case for Enbridge operating a safe, 1,777-km pipeline across BC and Alberta mountain ranges - an engineering challenge for the ages - when it can't manage to keep its oil to itself in the gently rolling hills of southwest Michigan?"
You be the judge. You can believe Enbridge and its slick multimillion dollar misinformation campaign, or you can believe the facts.
Dr. Art Fredeen
Dr. Annie Booth
Dr. Sarah de Leeuw
Dr. Paul Sanborn
Dr. Phil Mullins
Dr. Antonia Mills
Dr. Zoe Meletis
Dr. Margot Mandy
UNBC
