At what price…. tankers?

Globe and Mail July 21 2009
Chris Genovali

Coastal First Nations executive director Art Sterritt summed up the threat posed by oil tankers that would ship tar-sands crude from Enbridge Inc.’s pipeline to hydrocarbon hungry markets in Asia and the United States: “The minute there is tanker traffic, there is damage to a way of life” (At What Price ‘White Man’s Money’? – July 18).

The Enbridge pipeline from Alberta to Kitimat will put the marine environment of B.C.’s north coast at serious risk. If the pipeline is constructed, condensate tankers and oil tankers at least as big as the Exxon Valdez would ply B.C.’s rocky northern coastline on virtually a daily basis, entering Douglas Channel within eyesight of where the 120-metre B.C. ferry Queen of the North struck Gil Island and sank in 2006.

The Enbridge pipeline would ship more than 500,000 barrels of crude oil per day and, twice a week, 350-metre-long super tankers would pass by the very spot where the Queen of the North went down.

Chris Genovali
Executive Director, Raincoast Conservation

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