The bad, the ugly… and the good
You may have seen a recent article pointing to a rather glaring deficiency in the oil spill response plan proposed for the Northern Gateway pipeline / tanker project through the Great Bear. The project’s proponent, Enbridge Northern Gateway, is largely assuming that the product they are proposing to move through the Great Bear – diluted bitumen – behaves pretty much the same as conventional oil if spilled.
If this were true, it would be Bad. Unfortunately, it’s worse.
When it comes to cleaning up spilled oil from the marine environment, there is no Good. At its best, an oil spill clean-up for conventional oil is a disastrous mess. As Robert Powell points out in a recent blog, our ability to clean up spilled oil from the ocean is severely limited. Many best estimates pin the percentage of spilled oil that can be recovered at around 15% – and that’s in the best of conditions, with calm seas and ample spill response equipment nearby.
That’s for conventional crude oil, which tends to float. Diluted bitumen, once spilled, separates out into bitumen and diluent – the latter is a toxic thinning agent derived from natural gas that vaporizes making it extremely difficult and dangerous to work near, (I’ll call that “Nasty”, but I digress…). The bitumen is heavier than conventional crude and once spilled, actually becomes more dense over time through a process called “weathering”. Eventually, it can sink, or be drawn into the water column, circulate into the depths, re-surface, and churn about encountering sediments and sea life, pushed to-and-fro by tidal currents.
The Douglas Channel, with its myriad streams feeding freshwater and sediments into the Channel, scores of estuaries and bays, and 1000+ km2 of islands (e-hem…) experiences a tidal range of up to 25 feet.
Ugly does not begin to describe a spill of diluted bitumen in these waters.
Certainly, Canadians should be disturbed to learn that the behaviour of diluted bitumen has been misrepresented by the project proponent. But more than that, we can be asking why such a project, with its inherent risks, is even being considered for such a remarkable area in the first place.
The Great Bear boasts a thriving and healthy ecosystem, diverse and increasingly sustainable economies, and communities passionately engaged in keeping them that way.
(C) Gerald Butts, WWF-Canada
And that’s the Good.
Today, right now, we need your voice more than ever.
August 31st is the deadline for public comment to the Joint Review Panel . This body is charged with assessing whether the Northern Gateway project is in Canada’s best interest. Please take a few moments to register your comments online right now.