Council of Canadians chapters from across the Pacific region will be joining a rally tomorrow afternoon to protest the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline.
During the Pacific regional meeting of chapter activists, we will participate in the rally at Westridge Park, near the Westridge Marine Terminal. A flotilla of boats, canoes and kayaks will also be on the Burrard Inlet to protest the pipeline.
Texas-based Kinder Morgan is proposing to twin the Trans Mountain pipeline from northern Alberta to the British Columbia coast to increase the pipeline’s capacity from 300,000 barrels per day to 890,000 barrels per day.
This project would mean adding 980 kilometres of new pipeline alongside the existing 60-year-old 1,150 kilometres of pipeline.
The pipeline would carry diluted bitumen from the tar sands in northern Alberta through Jasper National Park, into the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, across the Vedder Fan aquifer and the municipality of Chilliwack’s Protected Groundwater Zone, then into neighbouring Surrey, across the Fraser River and to the Westridge Marine Terminal at Burrard Inlet in Surrey.
Recent news reports note that the route could now include drilling through Burnaby Mountain to avoid the Westridge neighbourhood where the pipeline spilled in 2007.
Once at the Port of Vancouver, the oil would be loaded onto export tankers. It is estimated that a tanker could be loaded every day with this expansion.
Regulatory hearings begin this August, construction of the pipeline could begin next year, and unless it is stopped the pipeline will be operational in 2017.
If you are in the Vancouver area, please join us. More information can be found on Facebook at People’s Procession & Rally Against the Kinder Morgan.
