The Delta Optimist reports, “(The municipality of) Delta is supporting the City of Vancouver’s request for a full public hearing on the proposed Kinder Morgan (Trans Mountain) pipeline expansion. Council earlier this month endorsed a motion to send a letter to the National Energy Board supporting Vancouver’s request for a hearing in which Vancouver and other local governments would be able to participate as interveners (and present evidence, question witnesses and give final arguments). …Vancouver and Burnaby are opposed to the project, as well as groups like the Council of Canadians that warn about the risks, including a spill in the Fraser River.”
The Save the Fraser Declaration, supported by more than 130 Indigenous communities and First Nations, has also been expanded to include opposition to the Kinder Morgan expansion plans. The article continues, “Kinder Morgan wants to twin Trans Mountain line, more than doubling capacity from 300,000 barrels (of tar sands bitumen) a day to 750,000… The existing line runs from northern Alberta (through Jasper National Park) to B.C., running through the Lower Mainland (notably through the Vedder Fan Aquifer area and the municipality of Chilliwack’s Protected Groundwater Zone), neighbouring Surrey, crossing the Fraser River and eventually reaching the Westridge Marine Terminal at Burrard Inlet. There, tankers are filled with crude. It’s estimated about 300 tankers would fill up annually if the expansion is approved.”
In 2007, a construction accident sent crude from the Trans Mountain pipeline shooting into the air in a residential neighbourhood in Burnaby. Kinder Morgan plans to file for approval of the project in 2014 and construction could begin in 2016. More at http://canadians.org/pipelines and http://www.delta-optimist.com/Delta+supports+Vancouver+call+pipeline+expansion+hearing/7172478/story.html.
