An oil spill discovered yesterday afternoon in the B.C. Interior has prompted Kinder Morgan to shut down its Trans Mountain pipeline, which transports crude oil from Alberta to Burnaby.
According to the National Energy Board (NEB), Kinder Morgan has sent a crew to the spill site – Crown land in a remote area southwest of Merritt, B.C. – for repairs. The NEB is also on site to monitor the cleanup.
Kinder Morgan stated this morning that early indications suggest the volume is less than two cubic metres (12 barrels) of oil. It did not offer a timeframe for the reopening of the pipeline.
Kinder Morgan is contacting all area residents to alert them of the spill. No immediate safety concerns have been detected.
According to an NEB press release, the energy board holds regulated companies responsible for all cleanup and remediation of a spill site and expects the “full restoration and revegetation” of areas affected by spills. This expectation includes sub-surface groundwater.
Kinder Morgan has long been planning to expand its Trans Mountain pipeline to supply more oil to Asian markets. Opponents of the proposed expansion say yesterday’s spill is a clear sign that Kinder Morgan’s expansion plans will cause further environmental damage.
“The accident near Merritt shows that B.C. is not immune to potentially disastrous oil spills,” said Sarah Cox, interim executive director of Sierra Club BC. “It’s proof positive that we need to reject Kinder Morgan’s proposal to build a second pipeline in order to ship tar sands bitumen past Victoria and the Gulf Islands.”
In a written statement, Ben West, tar sands campaign director with ForestEthics Advocacy, said: “This is yet another reminder that it’s not a matter of if spills will happen but when they will happen. Hopefully we were lucky this time and no toxic tar sands oil was released into the Fraser River or any other salmon-bearing streams.”
Currently, the Trans Mountain pipeline carries about 300,000 barrels of oil per day. Kinder Morgan’s expansion, if approved, would nearly triple that amount.
