LandKeepers News Archive
Oil Tankers Can be Safe Transport
December 15 2009 | Media Releases | Terrace Standard
Dear Sir:
Re: “Tanker safety claims doubted,” letter to the editor, Dec. 9, 2009.
Enbridge is proud of its 60-year history operating as a responsible company. As on all of our projects, we implement safety measures to help protect the local environment. In the case of Northern Gateway, we will invest in first response equipment, tether powerful escort tugs to loaded vessels and implement weather limitations, to name a few. Around the world, it’s been proven that safety measures such as these work effectively and can significantly reduce the risk of an accident.
The approaches to the Douglas Channel have safe, established shipping lanes that have been used for decades by a variety of ships, tugs and other marine craft. That being said, Northern Gateway will establish weather limitations to ensure the tankers are sailing and berthing in safe weather conditions. They will include visibility and wind limits. Weather limitations for the approaches to the Douglas Channel will be established in consultation with the Pacific Pilotage Authority, other appropriate government agencies and Aboriginal communities.
Northern Gateway will be developing, in consultation with appropriate government agencies, Kitimat and aboriginal communities, strict harbour regulations for the Kitimat marine terminal similar to those developed for other terminals such as Mongstad, Norway, an area with similar geography and weather conditions to the North Coast. The Mongstad harbour regulations include limitations on shipping during difficult weather conditions, as well as other mandatory safety provisions such as the use of escort tugs and pilots.
There has been ongoing misinformation put forward about the weather conditions in and around the Hecate Strait and Douglas Channel. As part of the environmental work for our regulatory application we have been collecting data from weather buoys in Dixon Entrance, Queen Charlotte Sound and Hecate Strait. Based on the buoys’ historical data from the last 20 years, open water waves exceeding 27 feet and wind exceeding 50knots occur less than one per cent of the time on an annual basis. With our coastal weather stations and modern weather forecasting of storm events, combined with weather limitations in place around transit and berthing operations, ships can safely navigate the channels and berth at the Kitimat marine terminal.
It is hard to understand why people would take issue with the statement by an expert on maritime shipping, Kevin Obermeyer, President and CEO of the Pacific Pilotage Authority, the regulatory body for the coastal pilots who navigate these waters on a day to day basis. To state that the Pacific Pilotage Authority, whose regulatory purpose is the provision of pilotage services to protect our coasts, would “benefit enormously, regardless of the risks” is irresponsible.
We encourage residents in Terrace to learn more about Northern Gateway by visiting us online at http://www.northerngateway.ca.
Sincerely,
Steven Greenaway
Vice President, Public & Government Affairs
Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipelines
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