Tankers in Georgia Strait - the issue heats up!

JUST ADDED - Report: Financial Liability for Kinder Morgan

MAP - Map of pipeline and tanker routes (Courtesy of Sierra Club BC)

UPDATED - A citizen's guide to tankers, oil spills and the risks to our region.

NEW - Strait of Georgia crude oil tanker video.

RECENTLY ADDED - Animated oil spill scenarios for our region! (Thanks to the David Suzuki Foundation.)

ACT NOW! - Click here to sign the petition to stop further increases in crude oil tanker traffic in our region!

VIDEO - Our Executive Director speaks about the Kinder Morgan pipeline proposal at a recent panel event

Looking at the news, we who live in the Georgia Basin region might be forgiven for believing that the environmental devastation and catastrophies that come with the oil and gas industry happen elsewhere.  They happen in Alberta's oil sands, in the waters off Alaska or along the shores of the Gulf of Mexico.  Though we see the ships that ply our waters whenever we're by the shore, the reason we don't think about the big spills is that no large spill has happened here - yet. 

With the news that Metro Port Vancouver has dramatically increased the numbers of oil tankers - carrying oil sands fuel - going through Burrard Inlet, and under First and Second Narrow bridges in the last few years, and that this increase will continue, our luck may be running out.

The decision to increase both the number of tankers and the amount of fuel they carry has been made without community consultation and without a comprehensive analysis of the risks of this decision and our ability to protect our waters when a spill happens.

We can't let others make decisions for us when it will be our communities that pay the social, economic and environmental costs when the big spill happens.  Please learn more through the links below and tell our leaders that we want a moratorium on any more increases in tankers through Burrard Inlet and we want an assessement of the increased risk that comes with these tankers, and our ability to respond to a spill - with public consultation.

Send more of your concerns about tankers to:

Minister Denis Lebel, Transport Canada
Minister Terry Lake, BC Ministry of the Environment
Minister Peter Kent, Environment Canada
Minister Keith Ashfield, Fisheries and Oceans Canada
Rob Fleming, NDP Provincial Environment critic
Megan Leslie, NDP Federal Environment critic
Kirsty Duncan, Liberal Environment critic
Lawrence MacAulay, Liberal Fisheries and Oceans critic
Fin Donnelly, NDP Fisheries and Oceans critic
Denis Coderre, Liberal Transport critic 

Also send your concerns to your local MLA, MP and your mayor and council.

Please copy GSA on your emails; thank you! 

More info:

• Fraser River Tanker Traffic Study - Full Report (June, 2012)
• Fraser River Tanker Traffic Study - Summary (June, 2012)
• How treacherous is Vancouver's Burrard Inlet Port? (video) (OpenFileVAN, June 6, 2012)
• Kinder Morgan announces proposal to twin Transmountain pipeline (April 2012)
  -  Kinder Morgan press release
  -  Kinder Expansion Backgrounder
• Save the Fraser Declaration (updated April 2012)
• GSA's article (Crude Oil Tankers in Georgia Strait: a concerned citizens perspective), October 2011 issue of the industry magazine BC Shipping News.
• Cohen Inquiry points to flawed response to oil spills (Globe and Mail, August 19, 2011)
• GSA's Submission to the National Energy Board regarding the Kinder Morgan Firm Service Application (June 16, 2011)
• Kinder Morgan's Grand Plan to Pipe Oil Sands Crude (The Tyee, June 2, 2011)
• Video: Overview of risks of increased tanker traffic on south coast (Paul Manley, November 2010)
• Major Oil Spill? Here? Now? (GSA Fall Newsletter Cover Story, November 2010)
• Bigger tankers could be on the way, says port boss (The Province, November 6, 2010)
• 'In our own backyard': Crude-oil tankers quietly slipping through Vancouver's harbour (The Province, November 6, 2010)
• Cuts leave B.C. exposed to eco-disaster (Times Colonist, October 2, 2010)
• The law and oil spills (Vancouver Sun, August 3, 2010)
• Alarm Sounded: Tanker Tug Crews Too Thin in Vancouver - Mitchell Anderson (The Tyee, July 9, 2010)
• Presentation to Vancouver city council - Peter Baker, MSc (July 5, 2010)
• Global Forces Making Vancouver a Major Oil Port - Mitchell Anderson (The Tyee, June 17, 2010)
• OpEd - Peter Baker MSc (The Province, June 17, 2010)
• Big Jump in Oil Tankers in Vancouver's Port - Mitchell Anderson (The Tyee, June 3, 2010)
• Dirty Little Secret - Don Whiteley (BC Business, March 2009)
• Second Narrows Vessel Transit - Pilotage Risk Management Methodology - June 2008
• Major Marine Vessel Casualty Risk and Response Preparedness in British Columbia - September 2008
• BC Waters
• Center for tankship excellence
• Study of Tug Escorts in Puget Sound - 2004 (Prepared for State of Washington Dept of Ecology)
• Pacific States - BC Oil Spill Task Force