Retired sea captain: Don't be fooled by Harper's pipeline plans
I've sailed every part of this coast, seen just about every kind of storm, squall or system, and I've experienced every kind of tide, current or cycle imaginable. With this in mind I believe I am qualified to ask the simplest of questions: Why would anyone in their right mind ever consider the proposition of running supertankers through the seascape around Kitimat?
Every skipper would describe the conditions in B.C. as "unpredictable." This aptly pertains to anywhere along our coast but gains special meaning when applied to the labyrinth of inlets and islands along the route out of Kitimat. There are simply too many variables at play to guarantee safety, and there have been only too many wrecks to prove it. These include the carcass of the U.S. Warship M.S. Zalinski currently leaking its 700 tons of fuel oil into the estuary, and the ill-fated Queen of the North that sunk as recently as 2006.
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Retired sea captain: Don't be fooled by Harper's pipeline plans | rabble.ca