GreenWatch

B. McPherson If You Build It, It Will Leak The oil pipeline company that is lobbying to build an oil pipeline through British Columbia has had a leak of one of its major pipeline systems. Line 37 which serves as a link from the Alberta Oil Sands to Hardesty Alberta, has had to be shut down after a leak was discovered near Fort McMurray. The company estimates that between 500 and 750 barrels of oil escaped containment. There is speculation that the record breaking rainfall in Alberta may have caused the sodden earth to shift, breaking the pipeline. A crew will have to be dispatched to the scene for confirmation. There is the danger, that other pipelines which criss-cross the province will fail in the aftermath of the widespread flooding. Early in the epic floods, a sour gas pipeline ruptured near the town of Black Diamond in the Turner Valley. Enbridge is unable to communicate with the media efficiently at this time because their head office is in downtown Calgary which r...

By B. McPherson This is some of the environment that would be put at risk with oil tankers traversing the treacherous seaways. Native elders and chiefs spoke in Kitimaat Village today regarding the proposed routing of the Gateway twinned pipelines through the Great Bear Rain Forest to the west coast of British Columbia. One of the Chiefs who spoke today expressed concern regarding the routing of the pipeline, likening the risk to his people as a double-barrelled shotgun. Pipeline spills through the sensitive land area plus the hundreds of oil laden tankers threading their way through the twisted canal leading to the town of Kitimat are very real dangers to the pristine environment. The Haisla are facing a double-barrelled shotgun by the bringing of that oil by pipeline and shipping it by sea," Hereditary Chief Ken Hall told the opening day of environmental hearings into the project. "The pipeline threatens our grandchildren," he said Tuesday. "It...