Kinder Morgan: Putting the Salish Sea at Risk

Straddling two countries, the Salish Sea is one of the world’s largest inland seas. Weaving through an archipelago containing hundreds of islands, the mixing of large freshwater rivers with marine waters in basins, bays and straits has created an ocean rich with life that is surrounded by outstanding natural beauty. It is also a desirable place for fossil fuel exporters to link together their numerous proposals to ship non-renewable, and typically dangerous, hydrocarbons to foreign markets.

One of these proposals is Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain expansion, which would effectively triple their existing pipeline output from current levels to 890,000 barrels of tar sands oil per day. The consequent increase in oil tanker traffic would result in more than 400 tankers travelling the Salish Sea every year – a 500% increase from 2010. However, this figure might be an underestimate: increases in pump capacity could deliver more than one million barrels per day, requiring up to 475 tankers every year…

The full version of this article was first published on the Seaside Magazine Website.

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