I suppose Alexander Mackenzie started it all. When the Scottish explorer finally reached tidewater on the 91原创 Coast, he left his mark on a rock at the water鈥檚 edge that鈥檚 there still.
鈥淎lex Mackenzie from Canada by land 22d July 1793,鈥� it says. Others have followed him, some filled with wonder as he must have been; some determined to make something of what he discovered.
A few more than 200 kilometres away from his rock as a seabird flies lies Kitimat, the designated terminal for the Northern Gateway pipeline from which tankers would carry Alberta bitumen down the constricted Douglas Channel to Asia if the project turns out to be more than a pipedream of Enbridge and other members of the pipeline consortium.
The project is a nightmare for many coastal dwellers, as it is for many inlanders who dread the iron snake moving, segment by segment, to tidewater across supernatural land they cherish.
They fear the bile that that snake would carry. They don鈥檛 dream of seabirds flying from Mackenzie鈥檚 rock; they imagine seabirds on a shore suffocating in a shroud of heavy oil, drowning in what makes mighty engines run.
People knowledgeable about all this keep saying the Gateway is blocked. They say that though Premier Christy Clark might persuade others to meet one of her five 鈥渃onditions鈥� for supporting the project 鈥� that B.C. get a fair share of profits 鈥� the other four conditions can鈥檛 be met.
They include approval by the federal environmental review, meeting aboriginal rights requirements and the development of 鈥渨orld-class鈥� oil-spill response strategies.
鈥淲orld-class鈥� as used by Clark makes the last condition sound achievable. But it鈥檚 not nearly as strong as the insistence by the B.C. government at review panel hearings in June that the consortium must come up with an 鈥渆ffective response鈥� to any spills.
Last week, in an interview with the CBC鈥檚 Peter Mansbridge, the premier left the oil-spill response responsibility with Ottawa. She said that the federal government hasn鈥檛 the resources to handle a large tanker spill off the B.C. coast today, let alone when 525,000 barrels of Alberta bitumen a day are being offloaded at Kitimat.
鈥淲e鈥檙e woefully under-resourced,鈥� Clark said. She found it 鈥渆ncouraging鈥� that the feds have begun to look at coastal safety and coast guard resources, but made it clear more has to happen 鈥渂efore any more heavy oil comes off the coast.鈥�
Enbridge, as part of its revamped PR campaign, is boasting about what it intends to do to keep the birds, animals and fish and forests, plains and waters of B.C. thriving when it has built a better pipeline and provided expanded marine safety measures.
Yet the company testified before the pipeline hearings that its liability ends at the end of the pipe. Is good faith enough?
Besides, if there鈥檚 a large spill, what can be done? The coast guard has been decimated in the interests of fiscal responsibility. It can鈥檛 perform cleanup, only supervise it.
Western Canada Marine Response Group Corp. says it has skimmers, booms and absorbent pads in coastal caches and 28 response vessels. But in the event of a big spill, it would have to call for help from other spill response outfits.
And it would take 72 hours to respond, longer in storms. There鈥檚 even talk of conscripting fishboats and other craft. Then what?
鈥淣o current cleanup methods remove more than a small fraction of oil spilled in marine waters,鈥� said a U.S. National Academy of Sciences panel in 2003.
Chemicals used to disperse oil are toxic to the environment and human beings. Scientists in Europe are wondering if freeze-dried oil-eating bacteria might work better.
鈥淚n most open ocean spills, no oil from a spill is recovered,鈥� B.C. testified before the pipeline hearings. And heavy crude sinks.
Yet Clark said she鈥檚 鈥渃onfident鈥� her five conditions can be met, that 鈥渆ffective response鈥� is possible.
Enbridge says it鈥檚 confident that oil will be flowing through its pipes in five years.
The company sounds as if it鈥檚 planning another historic marker at Kitimat: 鈥淓nbridge from Alberta by land 22nd July 2018.鈥�
How long before it and Mackenzie鈥檚 rock would be obliterated by an oilsands slick?
