In the News

SUN: Metro should evaluate Vancouver's oil tanker traffic risks: city council

By Jeff Lee, Vancouver Sun July 6, 2010

VANCOUVER - Metro Vancouver should evaluate the risks and dangers the strong growth taking place in oil tanker traffic in the region, Vancouver city council said Tuesday.

A day after holding a special council meeting to hear from marine shipping experts and environmentalists about oil tanker safety in Burrard Inlet, the city's politicians punted the issue over to Metro Vancouver's port cities committee. They said the committee, which represents all of the waterside communities in the region, should evaluate the risks of increased and planned tanker traffic as well as clarify who has liability for the impacts of a spill. And they want the committee to hold public meetings on the issue.

But in shifting the issue over to Metro Vancouver, the city also signalled it remains concerned about the potential for a catastrophic accident similar to the oil well blowout in the Gulf of Mexico. Councillor Andrea Reimer, who drafted the motion, said it is unclear how all the agencies and organizations governing tanker traffic are related and she wants a map done so municipalities know who's in charge when disaster strikes.

GLOBE: B.C. oil industry grilled on cleanup protocols

Frances Bula -- Vancouver — From Tuesday's Globe and Mail Published on Monday, Jul. 05, 2010 11:23PM EDT

The witnesses were called to explain what would happen if an oil tanker had a major spill in Burrard Inlet, in what was billed as an information session for Vancouver City Council. But after several industry officials gave presentations about safety precautions, Councillor David Cadman said sarcastically: “You’re basically telling us, ‘Don’t worry, be happy.’ Get to what happens if there’s a spill.”

The unusual council meeting Monday at times looked and sounded like a U.S. congressional hearing into a misbehaving industry. Representatives of Port Metro Vancouver, the Chamber of Shipping, Transport Canada and Burrard Clean Operations, the company that mops up spills on the B.C. coast, got a grilling about the potential risks of increased oil-tanker traffic in Vancouver’s main harbour.

Councillor Heather Deal quizzed chamber representative Captain Stephen Brown repeatedly about his assurances of “total safety.” Mayor Gregor Robertson wanted to know who would compensate local businesses if a spill affected them. In the end, although many reassurances were offered, they weren’t satisfied.

“But we still have some questions,” said Councillor Andrea Reimer, who plans to ask for the port committee of Metro Vancouver to take up the issue and get more answers.

CTV: More oil tankers in Vancouver raise spill concerns

ctvbc.ca
 
Updated: Mon. Jul. 5 2010 8:41 PM ET

The volume of crude cargo that passes through Vancouver's port each year has increased, and for oceanographer Peter Baker that's also increased his fear that something could go wrong.

"I'm very concerned about the safety and the possibility of an incident in those narrows," Baker told CTV News.

According to the port's own statistics, the amount of crude petroleum cargo rose by 77 per cent between 2008 and 2009.

The local source for crude exports is Kinder Morgan's Trans Mountain pipeline. Last year the company loaded 65 tankers with crude oil, an increase from 42 tankers in 2008.

But Baker says it isn't just the number of shipments that's increased, it's the size of the tankers being used.

"From a panamax size ship to an aframax, which means that it's about another 10 metres wide and several metres deeper," he said.

"So you've got a large ship in a very narrow channel, and it's also an extremely tidal passage, so all of those build up to a higher and higher risk."

The Port of Vancouver says it conducts spill simulation exercises every year to prepare, but in the case of a real emergency a local containment and clean up agency would respond.

"The question though is how convinced we are as a community that what's going on there is safe," Port Metro Vancouver's Chris Badger said.

Vancouver city council held a special meeting Monday to gather information on oil tanker traffic around the city.

"We were getting a lot of inquiries from residents and concerns being expressed," Coun. Andrea Reimer said.

"Are we prepared if there was to be a spill, and if not are there things that we could be doing to ensure we're better prepared?"

Reimer says she would like to see an opportunity for the public to also discuss the issue at council in the future.

With a report from CTV British Columbia's Maria Weisgarber

SUN: Port officials, environmentalists split on Vancouver's oil spill risk

Tanker traffic in city doubled in last two years
By Jeff Lee, Vancouver Sun July 5, 2010

VANCOUVER - Is the Metro Vancouver region prepared for the inevitability of a serious oil spill in Burrard Inlet? Does it have the resources to deal with a catastrophe if a tanker goes hard aground in Second Narrows and begins spilling its cargo of crude oil?

Vancouver city councillors raised those concerns Monday. In response, they heard competing views from port and government officials who say the prospect of a catastrophe is negligible and yet manageable, and from environmentalists and an oceanographer who say it is not.

With the Gulf oil well disaster fresh on the minds of many, the council held a special meeting at the behest of Mayor Gregor Robertson to look at oil tanker safety in the Inlet. There were no decisions taken during the public meeting. Council will discuss the issue at Tuesday's regular meeting.

But it was clear that many of the politicians want assurances that the recent increase in tanker traffic to the Kinder Morgan pipeline port in Burnaby doesn't come with a corresponding increase in risk. In the last two years the number of tankers coming to Burnaby has doubled to 70 from 35.

That's largely because of increased American demand for secure sources of crude in the wake of the 9-11 terrorist attacks, Chris Badger, Port Metro Vancouver's chief operating officer told council. Last year more than 8.3 million tonnes of petroleum products were moved out of the port. He said the port isn't looking to increase the size of tankers but has experimented with increasing the amount of cargo currently allowed on those that use the port.

The advent of double-hulled tankers in the wake of the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill has resulted in a dropoff of oil spill accidents around the world, said Capt. Stephen Brown, the president of the Chamber of Shipping. No single-hulls - of which there are only about 50 left in the world - are allowed in North America and there have been no double-hull oil spills since the ships began being manufactured in 1991, he said,

Within Vancouver's challenging and confining waters, the rules for oil tanker operation are so stringent that the prospect of a wayward ship going aground is infinitely small, Brown said. New computerized technology, the use of assist tugs and the fact all ships have to be under the control of a B.C. pilot all make the prospect of a grounding negligible, he said.

That's in stark contrast to narrow high-traffic, high-volume waterways like the straits of Hormuz, Malacca and Gibraltar where tug assists and pilots are not used, he said and yet have not had any major spills either.

Yet that's small consolation to people like Peter Baker, an oceanographer who warned there's little room for maneuvering in Vancouver's port a ship whose draft is so great that it has to enter and exit the harbour on high tide. In the event of an accident, the spill would spread outwards on the tide and become unmanageable, he said.

Christianne Wilhelmson, executive director of the Georgia Strait Alliance, asked council to stop any increase in tanker traffic until PMV does meaningful risk assessments that include public consultation.

Nor were councillors necessarily mollified by those statistics. "Total safety doesn't exist," said Councillor Heather Deal. "The fact is, increased traffic brings increased risk," said Andrea Reimer, another Vision Vancouver councillor. "The question is, how much risk is there and how can it be mitigated."