| Nov 15, 2012


Editorial by Jeff Green

One comment sticks in my mind from a meeting I attended last week about the ‘reversal’ of Enbridge oil Pipeline 9, which runs through our region.

In the midst of his cautionary presentation about Enbridge, pipelines, and leaks, Adam Scott from Environmental Defence that the matter of Pipeline 9 would not normally be that urgent for members of the public. However, since the government of Canada has waived the requirement for an environmental assessment to be completed before approving changes in the operations of a pipeline, the public should be very concerned.

The idea that no environmental assessment is needed for this project is staggering.

Mr. Scott said that once the approval is granted, diluted bitumen (dilbit) from Alberta will be able to flow through the pipeline. He also asserted that dilbit is more corrosive than other forms of oil, increasing the risk of a leak in the 36-year-old pipeline, which runs under all of the source waters to the great lakes.

An official from Enbridge said that the company plans to transport light crude oil from the west through the line in the short term, but said it is possible that dilbit will flow through the line some time later. He also said dilbit is no more corrosive than light crude oil, which has been flowing through the pipeline without incident for all these years.

I am in no position to evaluate these two claims, and a search of web sources yielded only contradictory claims.

I did find, however, that a major study is underway in the United States. Spurred on by the controversial Keystone Pipeline project, the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) in the United States is working with three senior engineers from a group called NACE (the National Association of Corrosion Engineers) on a 12 to 16-month study of the corrosive effects of diluted bitumen.

This study, to be completed to top industrial and scientific standards, should answer the technical question about the corrosive effects of dilbit once and for all. The very fact the study is underway speaks to the fact that this question has not yet been resolved.

The involvement of the NACE in this study is noteworthy in itself because NACE is active in 100 countries and counts 28,000 engineers as members, and its entire mandate is to study the effects of corrosion.

If any kind of environmental assessment were required for a major change in the use of a 300,000 barrel per day pipeline, a study of the literature would certainly come to the conclusion that this NAS corrosion study is entirely relevant and should be considered before any final decision is taken.

This would delay Enbridge’s plans for a year, I realise, but one year is not that long a time for a project like this, particularly when you compare it to the way approvals are handled locally.

It took at least two years for all of the assessments and approvals to come through for the creation of building lots on Kennebec Lake. It takes about that long for a rural plan of subdivision to be completed in South Frontenac.

That is the way it works when development is subject to the kinds of rules that have been put in place to ensure safe water for neighbouring properties, and safe habitat for wildlife.

These rules are in place through provincial and municipal regulations that are designed to protect the long term interests of all concerned.

While developers and individual landowners don’t always like the rules, at least they can take solace in the fact that they should be equally applied in all cases.

Not so, it seems, when large companies are involved, even though the environmental stakes are much higher than they are in creating building lots or plans of subdivision.

We are left with the feeling that all we can do is hope that Enbridge is good to their word, and will indeed take all necessary precautions.

It would help if they offered to hold off on any consideration of sending diluted bitumen through the 36-year-old Pipeline 9 until the experts from NACE get a chance to report on its corrosive properties.

 

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