The Globe and Mail reports, “Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP has shut down its Trans Mountain oil pipeline following the detection of a spill southwest of Merritt, B.C., Canada’s energy regulator said on Thursday. The National Energy Board said the size of the spill from the 300,000 barrel a day pipeline – currently the only crude oil conduit between Alberta and the West Coast – has yet to be determined. …The company has plans to nearly triple the capacity of the system to 890,000 barrels a day with a project that would cost about $5.4-billion.”
Merritt is located about 87 kilometres south of Kamloops.
The Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline proposal involves twinning the existing Alberta-to-Metro Vancouver 980-kilometre pipeline, which would add 550,000 barrels a day capacity to the current 300,000 barrels a day pipeline. It would service more than 30 tankers a month at the Westridge, Burnaby terminal. Kinder Morgan plans to apply to the NEB for permission to construct the pipeline in late-2013. The company wants the pipeline to be operational by 2017. At 550,000 barrels a day, this pipeline is larger than the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline which would carry 525,000 barrels a day.
A poll conducted in September 2012 found that 49.9 per cent of British Columbians oppose the Trans Mountain pipeline twinning, with just 21.9 per cent supporting it. First Nations leaders, environmentalists and the mayors of Vancouver and Burnaby also oppose the expansion.
The Council of Canadians has actively campaigned against the pipeline expansion, including a tour on the issue in British Columbia by Council of Canadians chairperson Maude Barlow this past fall.
To be continued.
For more, please read:
UPDATE: Mid Island chapter at open-house protest against Trans Mountain pipeline
UPDATE: Adrangi speaks at BROKE town hall against the Trans Mountain pipeline
UPDATE: Council opposes Trans Mountain pipeline
UPDATE: Council marches against Trans Mountain Pipeline
