There's a new group of Burnaby residents coalescing to oppose the Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion.
The group has roughly 18 members, and they are calling themselves BROKE - Burnaby Residents Opposing Kinder Morgan Expansion. Some are residents whose homes were affected by the 2007 pipeline rupture, while others have concerns about the environment. The group has had a couple of meeting so far, and the next is scheduled for tonight.
"We come from lots of different backgrounds, and we barely know each other. The only thing that unites us is we don't want a second pipeline. Most people are concerned about climate change," said Karl Perrin, group member and UniverCity resident. "Our objective is to continue with things as they are in terms of the foreshore in Burnaby, and we have a relatively clean ocean out there. We don't want more tankers; we don't want a tanker every day going in the inlet. ... People in Vancouver don't want it either. There are tons of people that don't want it. ... Of course Kinder Morgan has lots of money to make it happen. It's not an easy fight."
Kinder Morgan is the third largest energy company in North America and is valued at roughly $100 billion. The company operates the Trans Mountain pipeline, which has been running oil from Alberta to Burnaby since the '50s. Kinder Morgan would like to twin the line, more than doubling capacity from 300,000 barrels a day to 750,000 to meet rising demand for Canadian crude in Asia. The exact route of the proposed twin line hasn't been announced, as the company has yet to apply to the National Energy Board for project approval, but the existing line runs through Burnaby's Forest Grove area at the bottom of Burnaby Mountain and over to the Westridge Marine Terminal, where tankers fill up with crude. Environmentalists are estimating the expansion could mean 300 tankers in the Inlet annually.
Heights resident Ruth Walmsley got involved in BROKE over concerns for the environment.
"We don't want to have the Kinder Morgan pipeline twinned, because that would cause more expansion of the tar sands," she said. "The larger issue is to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels."
According to Walmsley, there's the potential that homes could potentially be expropriated to make way for the twin line, and there's the possibility of an oil spill.
"We want to really focus on public awareness of the pipeline and the impacts it would have on our neighbourhood and the ecosystem on Burrard Inlet. We feel a lot of people aren't aware of the impact it could have on their homes," she said.
The next BROKE meeting is on Wednesday, Aug. 22 at 7 p.m. at the McGill library branch, but the group is still getting organized, so they are not ready to open it to the public yet. But, future plans could involve leafletting neighbourhoods, hosting information tables at community events and screening a documentary on the tar sands.
"Basically just real grassroots community outreach is what we'd like to do and build a movement in the neighbourhood opposing Kinder Morgan," Walmsley said. "The politicians coming out against it need to know the citizens are behind them so they have more clout."
Burnaby seniors' advocate Elsie Dean started the group.
"The more I look it, the more I think it's insane what they are proposing," she said.
The group does not have a website yet or a contact number or email for the public.
Kinder Morgan's Andrew Galarnyk said the company hopes those interested in the project will engage in meaningful and constructive dialogue.
"The Trans Mountain public consultation process will begin this fall and include opportunities for people to learn about the project and provide feedback to the project team," he said.
For more on the pipeline, including dates and location for public consultation sessions, which will be posted in the coming weeks, go to www.transmountain.com.
