LandKeepers News Archive
B.C. Oil-Spill Liability Unresolved: Advocates
March 30 2010 | News Articles | CBC News
Environmentalists say a guilty ruling in the provincial court case involving an oil spill in Robson Bight does nothing to resolve who should pay for such damage.
Although Ted Leroy Trucking has been found guilty of six pollution charges linked to the 2007 sinking of a barge in an ecological reserve off northern Vancouver Island, the verdict doesn’t assess financial responsibility, the Living Oceans Society said in a statement Tuesday.
“While this judgment sends a message to barge owners that they are legally responsible for ensuring the seaworthiness of their vessels, it remains to be seen who is financially responsible when it comes to cleaning up oil spills on our coast,” said Oonagh O’Connor, Energy Campaign Manager for Living Oceans Society.
O’Connor said the $2.5-million cost of cleaning up a fuel spill from the sunken equipment aboard the barge will likely be paid by taxpayers, because the trucking company has declared bankruptcy.
The guilty judgment was handed down Monday by a B.C. provincial court judge.
Concerned about future spills
The cost of the Robson Bight cleanup would pale compared with the costs of any spill from tankers carrying oil from the northern B.C. port of Kitimat through the province’s Inside Passage to Asia.
Pipeline company Enbridge Inc. has named Kitimat its western terminal for a massive project to pipe Alberta crude to the B.C. coast, with tankers moving the oil to offshore markets.
The Enbridge project calls for more than 200 tankers a year to navigate through B.C. waters, each carrying up to 2.3 million barrels of oil, O’Connor said.
This Entry is Not Tagged. Click here to Add Tags