The oil leak was discovered early Friday morning after a drop in pressure was detected along the Rainbow pipeline, which runs about 770 kilometres from Zama to Edmonton. The leak was stopped later that day, but not before 4.5 million litres of oil, or 28,000 barrels, leaked into a wetland area near Little Buffalo, about 460 kilometres northwest of Edmonton.
Photograph by: Courtesy, Plains Midstream Canada
An oil pipeline spill in northern Alberta has spilled at least 28,000 barrels, making it the biggest spill in over three decades. CBC/Briar Stewart
At least 4.5 million litres of oil have spilled across part of the Peace River watershed in northern Alberta. It's the biggest crude oil pipeline spill in that province since 1975, and it's being described as "a major, major spill involving a significant amount of product" by provincial regulators, who took five days to announce Friday's spill to the public. Incidentally, it was also the second pipeline spill to take place in Alberta last week.
How long it will take to clean up the spill and how badly it will impact the people and environment around it is still unclear. Oil gushed out of the pipeline within the traditional territory of the Lubicon Cree, who lead a largely subsistence lifestyle within the pristine ecology of northern Alberta's boreal forest. The school in Little Buffalo, about 30 kilometres from the spill, is closed and residents are sayingthey've experienced nausea, burning eyes and headaches since the leak began. Some community members report that the oil is still leaking into the surrounding forest and bog.
What we do know is that no matter how many times oil companies tell us that practices and technology are improving, we'll never stop having spills so long as we depend on fossil fuels and the devices — including pipelines — that move them between coasts, countries and continents. The spills in Michigan and the Gulf of Mexico are a few recent examples, not to mention iconic disasters like Exxon Valdez. As old pipelines age and new ones are proposed — including the Enbridge pipelines that would tear tracks across Alberta and British Columbia to provide oil to American and Asian markets — the likelihood of spills grows.
No comments:
Post a Comment