Tanker traffic increase threatens the Salish Sea

Public not given a say in expansion of oil exports from Burnaby port

BY CHRIS GENOVALI AND MISTY MACDUFFEE, TIMES COLONIST DECEMBER 16, 2011

On British Columbia’s south coast, Kinder Morgan wants to triple the amount of crude oil being shipped from Vancouver’s Burrard Inlet through Georgia Strait, the Fraser estuary, Gulf Islands, Haro Strait and Juan de Fuca Strait.

The proposed pipeline expansions would deliver 700,000 barrels of tarsands oil per day to Burrard Inlet by 2016.

This month, the National Energy Board approved the most recent request by Kinder Morgan to divert more oil to their Burnaby terminal, which will increase tanker traffic in the Salish Sea.

Despite requests to the NEB by Raincoast Conservation Foundation, the Gulf Islands Alliance and other organizations, this was done without a full public process. Kinder Morgan is seeking approval for additional increases in pipeline capacity by 2016, which would further expand tanker traffic.

To read the full article, please visit the Victoria Times Colonist website.

You can help

Raincoast’s in-house scientists, collaborating graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and professors make us unique among conservation groups. We work with First Nations, academic institutions, government, and other NGOs to build support and inform decisions that protect aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, and the wildlife that depend on them. We conduct ethically applied, process-oriented, and hypothesis-driven research that has immediate and relevant utility for conservation deliberations and the collective body of scientific knowledge.

We investigate to understand coastal species and processes. We inform by bringing science to decision-makers and communities. We inspire action to protect wildlife and wildlife habitats.