Kinder Morgan crews were on site cleaning up the 5-12 barrel ‘leak’ Thursday. Photo: Courtesy BC CTV.
Only 5-12 barrels of oil released onto ground near Merritt, BC from Trans Mountain pipeline
Pipelines leak. Rail cars carrying crude oil derail. Tanker trucks overturn on highways. A hundred per cent guarantee against crude oil spills is impossible and British Columbians need to accept that fact.
The miracle is that the means of transporting oil don’t leak more often. When you think about the millions of barrels shipped from and around Canada each and every day, the pipeline industry’s claim of a 99.999 per cent safety record sounds pretty impressive.
Which is why it’s important for British Columbians to keep pipelines in perspective when there are leaks.
Thursday’s discovery of a small leak on Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline near Merritt is not cause for hand wringing and alarm. The pipeline did not rupture (more like a weep, according to company officials) and the leak was discovered during routine maintenance.
Only 12 barrels (some reports say as little as five) of crude leaked from the Trans Mountain pipeline. That’s a very small leak. Crews were on hand quickly to clean up the soil and repair the pipeline. The company’s system worked as designed, with minimal damage to the environment and no harm to humans.
Also this week, a pipeline in northern Alberta near the border with the Northwest Territories ruptured and spilled almost 57,000 barrels (9.5 million litres) of produced water onto ecologically sensitive muskeg. The water is very salty and will certainly kill vegetation over the 42 hectare area where it spilled.
The Alberta spill is significant and Canadians should be concerned. What was the chemical composition of the water and how much oil did it contain? If it seeped into the muskeg, which resembles a sponge, can it be effectively cleaned up? What effect will it have on local First Nations? Why did it happen and how can it be prevented from happening again?
The Trans Mountain pipeline spill is not significant. It is the cost of business in a hydrocarbon economy. And until solar power and wind energy are ready for prime time, British Columbians must accept the risk of small spills as the price they pay for driving cars, heating their houses, and in some cases, cashing a paycheque.
Not surprisingly, the eco-warriors were in full cry yesterday. ”They are proving that they can’t eliminate the threat posed by their pipeline,” Gabriel George of the Tsleil-Waututh First Nation told he Surrey Leader.
Jordan Wilson of the Pipe Up Network said, ”By a stroke of luck, the spill did not enter any waterways, saturate a farmer’s field, or worse yet, a school yard.”
Luck had nothing to do with it. Kinder Morgan was “pigging” the pipeline and the tool found an irregularity. Crews were dispatched, found the leak and a short time later the line was shut down and repairs were underway.
The system worked exactly as designed.
As an aside, I examined the Trans Mountain pipeline leak records from 1961 to present for a story last year and was surprised to discover that most spills were small and happened at tank farms and pumping stations, where there are containment systems in place.
Hugh Harden, Kinder Morgan’s VP of operations and environment, health and safety, told me in an interview that the Trans Mountain pipeline is in better shape now than when the company purchased it in 2005 because of regular maintenance and upgrades.
As long as we have an economy that runs on oil – and last I looked, British Columbians burned as much gasoline in their SUVs and minivans as other Canadians – that oil will be moved from one place to another by pipelines.
West Coasters must accept small spills and not get in a swivet over five barrels here and 10 barrels there. Especially when the spill in question occurs on industrial property and is contained and quickly cleaned up.
Significant spills, like the Zama pipeline, rightly deserve their concern. And they should be demanding answers of the industry and assurances that such spills won’t happen in BC.
But crying “Wolf!” over every incident involving a pipeline will only guarantee citizens eventually tune out the issue, which would be counterproductive because public pressure is what keeps government, regulators and industry on their toes.
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