Burnaby-Douglas MP Kennedy Stewart says the oil spill in Vancouver’s English Bay is a sign of what could happen if Kinder Morgan’s pipeline expansion goes through.
The spill was first reported Wednesday, around 5 p.m., and the oil is already showing up on Vancouver’s shores.
“Every time this happens, people see a glimpse of one possible future for the region,” Stewart told the NOW. “If we approve this pipeline and it gets built, we’d become one of the biggest oil export ports in the world. We’re going to see more of this.”
Stewart also raised concerns about the time it took to notify the City of Vancouver, which was informed at 6 a.m. the following day.
“It took a good number of hours before the City of Vancouver was alerted, and now it’s going to wash on shore,” Stewart said.
By Thursday afternoon, authorities could not confirm the source or the type of oil, but on Friday, the suspected ship, the Marathassa, confirmed it was the source. The Marathassa is a bulk carrier from Cyprus built in 2015. Estimates peg the spill at 2,700 litres of oil, with about 1,400 recovered.
“It sounds like a very small spill compared to what could happen if a large tanker ever had a problem,” Stewart said. “This seems to be some kind of diesel, it’s not bitumen. With bitumen, if you had this problem it might stay on the surface for a little while, then it sinks to the bottom it would be a horrible mess to clean up. In a way it’s a harbinger of what could be if we continue with the expansion of the port facilities in terms of exporting oil.”
Kinder Morgan wants to nearly triple capacity on the Trans Mountain pipeline, which ships oil from Alberta to Burnaby. The plan includes expanding the Westridge Marine Terminal, where tankers fill up with crude on the Burrard Inlet. The plan, if approved, would increase tanker traffic from roughly five vessels a month to 34.
The Trans Mountain pipeline has been operating since the 1950s, and there’s never been a major oil spill on the water. However, there was a land-based spill in 2007 in Burnaby, when contractors hit an underground oil pipeline.
