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Who will clean up Big Oil's mess?
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- Tar Sands (44)
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Apr
16
2012
The frenzied push by Big Oil to expand its tar sands tentacles across the country sees no fewer than four pipelines up for construction, expansion or modification. Combined, these projects would span our country, crossing countless acres of farmland, rivers, forests, the backyards of thousands of Canadians and would also send tankers along our coastlines.
The thing about pipelines is that they spill. So what better time for the federal government to axe the people tasked with protecting Canadians from the impacts of oil spills. The Environmental Emergencies Program at Environment Canada, which responds to oil spill emergencies, will need to shut offices in Vancouver, Edmonton, Dartmouth and St. John’s. Its office in Gatineau, QC will stay open. (By the way, there are no oil pipelines running through or near the capital region). Each year, they respond to 1,000 significant spills.
Oil spills are hazardous for the environment, difficult to clean up and harmful to human health. The residents of Marshall, Michigan know this all too well following Enbridge’s almost three-million-litre in 2010 spill of tar sands oil. According to the state government, 145 patients reported illnesses or symptoms associated with the oil spill, and a survey of 550 residents in the area showed that 58% suffered health impacts such as respiratory problems, nausea and headaches. The slow response time to the emergency meant the oil oozed down a 48 kilometre stretch of the river and into a lake. The mess is still being cleaned up nearly two years later.
So you can imagine the downside in leaving northern Alberta and B.C.; southern Alberta; southern Ontario; and B.C.’s interior and Lower Mainland – those are the places affected by the four pipelines in the works – without oil spill protection staff. These are only some of the most densely populated regions of Canada. Tar sands oil also does more damage and is harder to clean up than conventional oil.
Sadly, it gets worse. Lax oversight of the pipeline companies by the National Energy Board (NEB) means that Canadians have no assurances that the companies themselves are well prepared to respond to emergencies. A recent federal audit showed that the NEB is failing to ensure that pipeline companies are meeting the rules for pipeline safety and emergency response. In most cases examined, companies were not meeting the NEB rules for safety and protection of the environment, yet there was rarely any follow up from the regulator to get them in line.
Similarly, of 30 plans to deal with spills, all were found to be lacking key pieces like plans for evacuation of nearby homes, the location of equipment to deal with an oil spill and the risks posed to environmentally-sensitive areas. Yet the NEB only required one company to improve its plan, meaning the rest are still incomplete.
Oil spills do happen, and with more and more tar sands oil being shipped across the country, they’re likely to happen even more.
So who will protect people and the environment from oil spills? The companies aren’t prepared, and the federal government is shutting the offices that deal with it despite having sole responsibility for spills into waterways and First Nations lands. With Big Oil in the driver’s seat, Canadians are already facing an unprecedented rollback of environmental safeguards and being told to shut up and accept oil pipelines wherever Big Oil wants to put them across the country. Now are we expected to don hazmat suits and clean up their messes as well?
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Apr
17
2012
More detail on Emergenies Program
Ronny says:
As one directly affected Ill clear up a couple of details.
First off 20+ officers in the regional offices will be lost. Staff in Vancouver, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Yellowknife, Toronto, Moncton, St. Johns and Dartmouth will be laid off. The remaining staff will be moved to Gatineau and Montreal. All regional capacity to respond and more importantly to prepare for environmental emergencies will be lost. The work that this group that does in preparedness is not well publicized. We work with all the responsible agencies from the federal level to the local level and bring them together during an event to ensure that all of the environmental resources are protected and that public safety is maintained. We do not just respond to oil spills...although they tend to grab the headlines we respond to train derailments, industrial accidents; anyone recall the sunrise explosion, pipeline breaks, hazardous materials fires. I could go on but trust me when I say its that and everything in between. The fact is the officers being laid provided a service that does not exist anywhere else in the country. In fact with the exception of a hand full of nations most countries around the world do not have this capability. There is a reason the UN Environmental Emergencies Program identified Environment Canada as one of the world leaders in Environmental Emergency prevention, preparedness and response. We have deployed to assist South Korea, Lebanon and the United States (kalamazoo); yes even the US look to us once in awhile, and turned down numerous other requests. We will be missed not for the reasons we can think of but for the reasons we can't.
Good Luck!
Apr
19
2012
The general public doesn't know....
Anna says:
All this information in the article & Ronny's response below. Why doesn't the average person know that this is happening? Perhaps if they did they'd take a stand.
Apr
22
2012
EC cuts emergencies program
ronny says:
Anna,
You ask why the average person doesn't know this is happening...in our case the average Canadian doesn't know we exist. We worked behind the scenes during an incident. We advised the responsible party on what they have to do, we advised the lead agency on what needed to be done and what was at risk. Its the responsible party and lead agency that garner the media attention when things go south. Second of all the dept has never been good at exploiting our efforts. We have been engaged in almost every major incident in Canada for the past 20 years. We worked behind the scenes working with local responders during the olympics in vancouver, G8/G20, Swiss Air, Sunrise Propane explosion, numerous train derailments, hagarsville, St-Basile-le-Grand pcb fire, raising of the irving whale, sinking of the queen of the north, etc etc etc. We have gone oversees to provide assistance too...on major events - the biggest. Don't expect coverage though. Its ok for Canadians to know that we have sent in the armed forces to make water for a community oversees but its not ok to let Canadians know that we went to South Korea for two weeks to train 3 dozen or so scientists and advise them on how to clean a couple of hundred kilometers of oiled shoreline...Hebei Spirit look it up!
IN the Ottawa citizen a former emergencies officer goes on the record and describes how the average canadian may realize we are not there anymore.
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Scientist+mocks+phone+solution+disaste...
May
04
2012
Incident on the verge of significant event
Ronny says:
http://www.vancouverobserver.com/sustainability/2012/05/03/northern-bc-o...
http://www.globaltvbc.com/video/fuel+slick/video.html?v=2230597754#stori...
Thank you CCG for enflaming the situation!
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