Researchers map risks posed by Northern Gateway pipeline to BC parks

The Tyee

By Adam Pez  April 24, 2012

A Canadian-based team of scientists have produced the first peer-reviewed study on the threat Enbridge’s Northern Gateway pipeline poses to B.C. parks and protected areas, finding 34 spots under threat of spills downstream of the pipeline.

Dr. Paul Paquet, the senior scientist with the Raincoast Conservation Foundation who oversaw the academic work on the paper, said researchers undertook the study because of perceived problems with Enbridge’s pipeline proposal.

“The information [Enbridge] did provide was using a model that was proprietary,” he said. “They wouldn’t provide it to us. So that presented some obvious difficulties in assessing their own assessment.”

Even so, the group found holes in the parts of the Enbridge proposal they could access, said Paquet.

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