By Staff
March 6, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON.
The National Energy Board will release its decision in Calgary Thursday on Enbridge’s controversial plan to increase flows in Line 9 that runs between Sarnia and Montreal and across the top of Burlington, to ship bitumen from the Alberta tar sands through the 39-year old pipeline.
The NEB decision is expected to respond to demands from the Ontario government and cities like Hamilton that the proposal be subjected to an independent engineering assessment and that Enbridge be forced to conduct hydrostatic testing.
The pipeline that Enbridge wants to use to ship bitumen to Montreal runs right through the top of the city.
Other issues raised in the hearings conducted last fall included Enbridge’s request for maximum operating pressures 50 percent greater than at any point in the last decade. The company has admitted that nearly a third of Line 9 leaks. There is widespread concern about the difficulties in cleaning up a spill of bitumen and the toxic diluents released when a rupture occurs.
Since the hearings concluded media investigations have revealed multiple spills that Enbridge failed to report to affected municipalities, and hundreds of Line 9 defects that have been found by the company since it filed its application. It’s unclear if these revelations will be considered by the NEB.
The route of the pipeline is clearly marked.
One wonders what the severe weather is going to have when the frozen ground north of Sideroad # 1 begins to thaw and the ground starts to heave.
Hamilton 350, an advocacy group said in a statement that: “It is clear that we must wean our society off fossil fuels. The minimum first step is stop making things worse. When you find yourself in a hole, the first rule is to stop digging. Therefore, at minimum, no increase in the extraction or transportation of fossil fuels should be contemplated.”
Hamilton 350 also questions the fairness of the NEB process that required detailed application forms from anyone wishing to even submit a written comment to the Board. And they suggest that the credibility of the board’s independence is undermined by its failure to require notification to even the city government for flow expansion last year in another pipeline running parallel to Line 9.
Burlington filed a submission expressing its opposition to any changes to the line. Sometime after the letter of opposition the Burlington Fire department accepted a donation from Enbridge for the development of a simulation lab.
Background links:
Burlington opposes any change in direction of pipeline flow.
City opposes change to pipeline flow then its fire department accepts a $7500 donation.
Burlington tells NEB a pipeline leak would be a disaster for the city.
