Gunter is not really on my side of the fence, but looks like even he's calling this one a bust.
Gunter: Leak could sink Gateway
This week’s report by the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) on a 2010 pipeline leak in Michigan cannot be shrugged off by supporters of the Northern Gateway pipeline project to take oil from Alberta to B.C.’s West Coast.
The Kalamazoo River leak was deemed by the NTSB to be the costliest on-land spill in U.S. history and the company proposing construction of Northern Gateway – Enbridge – is the same company responsible for the Michigan pipeline breach.
While a Chevron leak in California in 2005 dumped more oil — 24,000 barrels versus Enbridge’s 20,000 — because the Michigan leak travelled down nearly 60 kilometres of rivers and streams, Enbridge’s cleanup costs ($900 million) were nearly five times that of Chevron’s.
Although both these leaks were tiny by comparison to the Deep Water Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 (nearly 5 million barrels) and the Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska in 1989 (a minimum of 262,000 barrels), the effects of on-land spills can be more devastating per barrel because the oil is confined to a smaller area.
What makes matters worse for Enbridge and its Northern Gateway project is that the NTSB deemed the company negligent and incompetent.
“This accident was the result of multiple mistakes and missteps by Enbridge,” board Chairman Deborah Hersman said Tuesday.
Even though alarms began sounding in Enbridge’s Edmonton master control room shortly after the spill began, safety technicians on duty misinterpreted the signals for 17 hours. Far from rushing to shut down flow in the line, twice during those crucial hours Enbridge employees sent more oil into the already gushing pipe.
It wasn’t until a worker from a local natural gas company noticed oil flowing freely in the river and called Enbridge did the company close off the line.
There is just no getting around the fact that Enbridge fouled up its response and fouled it up badly. Hersman likened Enbridge’s response to the madcap “Keystone Cops.” It’s also possible to compare it to Homer Simpson’s befuddled efforts to prevent an explosion at the Springfield nuclear reactor by trying to remember whether or not to vent radioactive gas. “D’uh. This is hard.”
If you live along the proposed route of Northern Gateway or along British Columbia’s spectacular Pacific Coast, you don’t have to be an anti-development “green” zealot to be worried about Enbridge’s ability to safely manage a large pipeline through fragile environments.
Perhaps most troubling of all is the NTSB’s determination that Enbridge knew as early as 2005 that the section of line that eventually broke was corroded and cracked. Yet the company chose for five years not to excavate the section and conduct repairs.
Perhaps the company was cynically calculating that the cost of any cleanup would be less than the cost of repair. But if the ultimate effect of the Michigan spill is the cancellation of the $5.5-billion Northern Gateway project, then the true cost of the Kalamazoo River spill will be tens of billions of dollars lost, not just to Enbridge, but to the Alberta and Canadian economies. Thousands of new jobs, too, will never materialize.
How can Enbridge rescue Gateway?
The NTSB also cited “regulatory culpability” for the 2010 leak. “Delegating too much authority to the regulated to assess their own system risks and correct them is tantamount to the fox guarding the henhouse. Regulators need regulations and practices with teeth.”
Enbridge needs to say clearly, now, that it does not want to self-police and will abide by any regulatory oversight Ottawa and B.C. deems necessary for Gateway. And Ottawa and Victoria have to promise to be tough on the company.
Gunter: Leak could sink Gateway | Columnists | Opinion | Edmonton Sun
