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Line 9 pipeline is a risky business

Garfinkle, Miriam
Date Written:  23/03/2019
Year Published:  2016  
Resource Type:  Article

Article for the Toronto Field Naturalist newsletter on the risks to our natural environment posed by Enbridge's Line 9 pipeline project.

Abstract: 
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During the National Energy Board (NEB) hearings on Line 9 in 2013, pipeline expert Richard Kuprewicz said that based on the evidence, there was a 90% likelihood that Line 9 would spill in its first few years of operation.

Such a spill would not be a minor event. Line 6B, a sister pipeline also operated by Enbridge, also carrying diluted bitumen, suffered a major spill into the Kalamazoo River in Michigan in 2010. Thirty-five miles of the river were closed for two years, and, six years later, portions on the river still have not been cleaned up. Part of the problem is that once diluted bitumen has spilled into water, it is almost impossible to remove it. Conventional cleanup methods are inadequate which has been recently documented by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.

If Line 9 spills into one of Toronto's rivers -- or one of the many other rivers and streams it crosses on its way from Sarnia to Montreal -- this kind of virtually irreversible damage is what we could face here.

Approval for Line 9 was rushed through under an expedited industry-friendly process set up by the Harper government.

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