What if… the tankers put us at risk…?

With Halloween on the horizon, it seemed only fitting for a story of potential horror be told to an anxious group, listening to every worrisome word.

On Friday, the Living Oceans Society presented a rather stark picture of life on along the coast of BC in the event of troubles on coastal waters; highlighting some of the main concerns for residents in the aftermath of any form of tanker spill in the waters of the north coast.

With talk increasing over the last few years about an increase in tanker traffic into Prince Rupert and/or Kitimat, they felt the time was right to provide some information on what could happen if things were to go horribly wrong.

The folks in Hartley Bay received a small sample of what could happen when the Queen of the North sank a year and a half ago; the fear is that with increased traffic along the north coast, the potential for even more catastrophic disasters is increased as well.

They presented their thoughts on the issue to a group of stakeholders last Friday featuring a digital interactive presentation which showed the potential damage from a variety of spills of different sizes. (Which you can view from their website here)

The Daily news featured their worried vision as the front page story of Monday’s paper.

GROUP SHARES ITS NIGHTMARE VISION OF NORTH COAST SPILL
The Living Oceans Society uses digital model to show how bad things could be
By Kris Schumacher
The Daily News
Monday, October 29, 2007
Pages one and three

Tankers full of toxic condensate could pose a serious risk to the coastline of northern B.C., according to the Living Oceans Society, which brought its warning about possible scenarios to Prince Rupert on Friday.

In the past few years, several oil and gas companies have put forward projects that would see tankers travelling into the ports of Kitimat and Prince Rupert, which if approved could result in more than 300 tankers a year moving through northern coastal waters.

Oonagh O'Connor, energy campaign manager for the Living Oceans Society, was in Prince Rupert on Friday to speak to stakeholders on the issue, and also to give a demonstration of a new digital interactive oil spill model.

The Living Oceans Society model was developed to assess the impacts of an oil tanker accident, and allows people to see what spills of various sizes, at different times of year and in different locations would look like on B.C.'s North and Central Coast.

“In 1972, the Canadian government imposed a moratorium banning oil tanker traffic from the North and Central Coast of B. C. and in 2003 a commission of scientists concluded it should stay in place,” said O’Connor.

“We thought we were a lot more secure than we actually are, especially since 75 per cent of British Columbians polled thought tankers should be kept out of coastal waters.”

In fact, what happened was the federal government already began violating the long-standing moratorium in 2006, when it began allowing tankers carrying highly toxic condensate through to Kitimat, she said.

O’Connor said that, aside from a handful of people, most First Nations representatives and other coastal residents were not informed that these tankers were traveling through traditional territories and coastal waters. As of July 10, condensate tankers have come through B. C.’s coastal waters.

Condensate is chemically classified as a highly toxic petrochemical that kills marine life on contact. It’s used in Alberta’s tar sands to thin the tar-like oil that is extracted, thus allowing easier movement of the oil.

Canada produces much of its own condensate and does not need to import the substance.

However, it is cheaper to bring in condensate from South America, she said.

The risk posed by these condensate tankers alone is enough that North Coast residents should be alarmed, said Dr. Rick Steiner of the University of Alaska, who gave a presentation alongside O’Connor.

Steiner gave a brief history and the hard lessons that were learned first hand from the Exxon Valdez oil spill.

“You need to put a system in place here to minimize the risk as much as possible, even though you can’t get it to zero,” said Stenier.

“There’s a huge amount of risk with these condensate tankers, and every one needs to be escorted by a rescue tug (boat) around Inside waters. There are not tugs around these tankers.”

Steiner also believes that in order to minimize the risk that all tankers bring to B. C. ‘s coast, there is a need for weather restrictions that will keep tankers either at sea or at dock in all cases of risky water conditions. As well, routing agreements need to be made by the federal and provincial governments to determine which routes tankers would be bound to when navigating inside coastal waters.

“If it’s blowing 80 knots, do you really want a condensate tanker going up Douglas channel with a cross wind and no rescue tug?” asked Steiner. “They also need to tracked 24/7, 365, if they’re in territorial waters, and out of here. They’ve got millions of gallons of oil on board.”

The Living Oceans Society interactive oil spill model was demonstrated by O’Connor, and the results it yielded were highly disconcerting to the stakeholders gathered a Fisherman’s Hall.

As an example, an Exxon Valdez-sized spill at Grenville Rock (a hazard shipping area identified by Transport Canada) in the wintertime would see oil spread all the way to waters off the coast of Masset. This means that the shores of Rose Spit would be oiled, and salmon spawning and migratory routes would be severely affected, as well as all kinds of birds, grey whale populations, sea lions and orcas.

According the model, a summer spill of 1.26 million barrels at Ness Rock (another Transport Canada hazard zone) would see oil spread all the way down to Bella Bella after 32 days, covering every shore in between.

“Even before any safety measures are put in place, we should have a conversation (with government) about whether we want any of those condensate or oil tankers coming into our waters,” said O’Connor. “We haven’t even been asked.”