Nature Vancouver

 

The Port of Vancouver has occasionally exported crude oil surplus to local refinery needs. But with the recent expansion of the Transmountain pipeline it now has steady flows of crude oil available for export in much larger ships. All of these exports occur through the narrow and shallow confines of Second Narrows, and each tanker contains enough crude oil to exceed the spill of the Exxon Valdez by several times. Unlike the Northern Gateway proposal by Enbridge, the expansion of the Kinder Morgan capacity and the tanker traffic it generates apparently does not require the same extensive stakeholder, environmental, and regulatory review that new terminals require.

 

With the entire Gulf of Georgia less than 100 miles in radius from Second Narrows, a spill there or elsewhere enroute to the open Pacific would be disastrous. The Exxon Valdez spill travelled in excess of 400 miles, and the current disaster in the Gulf of Mexico illustrates just how inadequate spill clean up efforts can be even when weather and tides co-operate.

 

Peter Baker

pbakersterATgmail.com

M.Sc. Oceanography

Nature Vancouver Member

North Vancouver