Tankers and Tar Sands Oil Threaten the Salish Sea

San Juan Islander

Wednesday, 14 December 2011

By Chris Genovali and Misty MacDuffee

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, the Gulf Islands, the San Juan Islands, Haro Strait and Juan de Fuca Strait.

Their proposed pipeline expansions would deliver 700,000 barrels of tar sands oil per day to Burrard Inlet by 2016.

Recently, the National Energy Board approved the latest request by Kinder Morgan to divert more oil to their Burnaby terminal, which will consequently increase tanker traffic in the Georgia Strait-Puget Sound region (a.k.a. the Salish Sea). Despite requests to the NEB by Raincoast Conservation Foundation, the Gulf Islands Alliance and other NGOs, this was done without a full public process.

To read the full article, please visit the San Juan Islander website.

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