Cdn Energy Board stops Enbridge push to the east


B. McPherson

Enbridge Group that moves petroleum products has faced stiff opposition from environmentalists in its push to move Tar Sands bitumen to Canada’s coastlines. Increasing opposition from British Columbians to their scheme to build a pipeline to the Pacific Coast has them looking at pipelines to the east that they already control.

Those pipelines have been configured to carry refined, imported oil from the Atlantic Coast, west to Ontario and Quebec.

Enbridge has applied to reconfigure them to carry the sandy petroleum product to the coastal refineries on the Atlantic coast or for export to foreign countries. The plan was to start moving the diluted bitumen(dilbit) in Line 9B in November.

While one of the things that Enbridge likes to emphasize in attempting to convince people that their pipelines would be an asset, is the safety of moving petroleum products by pipeline. Today the Canadian Energy Board put paid to that premise when they ruled that Enbridge’s proposal to reverse the flow in their aging pipelines has not met safety regulations.

One of the demands of the Energy Board was to have all major waterways protected in the case of a pipeline breach. The requirement calls for protection of the waterways by the installation of shut off valves within a kilometre, one on each side of the waterway. The Energy Board in their letter advising Enbridge of their ruling notes that only six of the 104 required valves have been installed and that some of them are 10 kilometres or more from the waterways.

The Board also stated that just because Enbridge people state that a waterway is not major, that isn’t necessarily so.

Upon review, the Board is not persuaded that Enbridge meets the requirements of Condition 16 of the Order and therefore, the  Board does not approve Enbridge’s submissions. Energy Board of Canada

Enbridge Inc. is the major mover of petroleum products in Canada.
                                                                
Sources:
CBC News        
National Energy Board        

Enbridge Inc.                     

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