[All] Congratulations LULU!!! RE: Line 9: Amazing developments

Fri May 25 11:11:33 EDT 2012

Engineers are not held accountable in this country, the US or many others.

Clients signoff off acceptance within 6 months after completion and that is
the end of the Engineering responsibility.  

Failure, upset, etc can be blamed on poor maintenance or poor operations by
the client.  This pipeline will eventually leak as all manmade things fail
eventually.  Case in point oil rigs and nuclear reactors.  Unfortunately
there is no preventative interaction or viable economical means to take
these manmade things out of operation.  We have not evolved to that point.

This pipe line has an expiry date as do all things.  These are the questions
which may be put to the client (Enbridge), the consultant and the materials
supplier.  20 years is the norm but economically motivated inspectors are
pushing expiry dates to the limit.  When your salary depends on economics
then that will be the direction one takes.  That is instinctive.

2 cents.

From: all-bounces at gren.ca [mailto:all-bounces at gren.ca] On Behalf Of Daphne
NICHOLLS
Sent: May-25-12 10:32 AM
To: GREN
Subject: [All] Congratulations LULU!!! RE: Line 9: Amazing developments

Hi Lulu, 
What an amazing week you've had! From losing your presentation and phone on
Tuesday to yesterday's conflict resolution success ... what a rollercoaster
ride!  Sounds like you've opened doors to environmental progress in the long
run!
Thank you!! and well done!
Daphne

  _____  

Date: Thu, 24 May 2012 17:44:53 -0700
From: butterflybluelu at rogers.com
To: all at gren.ca
Subject: [All] Line 9: Amazing developments

Hi folks

Today's hearing makes me more and more convinced, that miracles are
possible. 

I arrived in London and saw the headline in the London Free Press that
reads: THE BIG LEAK. Half a million southwestern Ontario residents are
without water due to the Region's largest water pipe breaking. Stantec used
the data they did for THIS pipeline and simply doubled it to get their price
estimates for our Region's Lake Erie pipe proposal.

As I sat at the NEB hearing, I had a Eureka moment. When a water main
brakes, you don't hear people complaining that it was the Region's fault and
yet when an oil pipeline breaks, they plaster the name of Enbridge all over
the place. The fact of the matter is, the spills Enbridge has been
experiencing are not based on corrosion issues, they are based on the same
reason as this water main break: Underestimated risks in the Environmental
Impact Studies. 

Root cause Stantec? Not necessarily. The guidelines for what is considered a
reasonable test have not been designed. Folks will usually do the minimum of
whatever it takes to get the job, to get something approved, done rather
than to do the job right. So how do we secure the best strategy for risk
prevention? Easy. Hold environmental engineering firms liable. 

I told the NEB chairs, oil distribution agencies like Enbridge pay other
firms to do their environmental impact studies. In good faith they build
their pipes thinking that the work is done right. Enbridge assumes the
liability risk of that data they purchased to justify their pipeline. When
pipes break and the reason is linked to poor quality data of the EIS report,
the blame should be on the firm who conducted the study, not Enbridge. Oil
distribution firms should keep a check worth the entire value of the
services these Engineering firms provide. If the pipes break due to the
negligence of a poor EIS report: Cash it. That money incentive will assure
the job gets done right. It will also serve to prevent destruction for
profit scenarios. 

When it came down to the final argument, the Enbridge rep clairified, the
existing line has not been in use for over a year but the industry wants to
open it up to move light crude to refineries in Montreal but they also
stated, "If we can't move this oil safely, were not going to move it."
Enbridge is open to further discussion on the matter with the public. 

At that point, the NEB chairs stated, they will now take their first
Undertaking: Enbridge must figure out how to involve parties in this process
and how to inform citizens of emergency plan development and include them in
the process. 

After that the hearing was adjourned.  I had a whole bunch of folks come up
to offer handshakes and thanks from the staff of Enbridge, all the oil
company reps as well as the staff of Ecojustice, Equiterre and Environmental
Defence. People really liked the idea. NEB liasion officer said that the
policy was a direct result of my presentation and said that in 12 weeks
we'll hear from Enbridge on how they are willing to proceed with the
undertaking. 

As I left I thought about Forest Ethics and how they created ground breaking
protection for Carolinian Forests by creating sustainable harvesting
programs directly with the forestry sector. Things get done much faster with
industry partnerships to create better standards than they do via political
processes. Enbridge is willing to work with us to figure out how to avert
risks. This could be groundbreaking stuff. They need to figure out what to
do with the existing pipe that's already on top of our moraine. It was
installed in 1976. Should it stay or should it be removed? Is there any way
they could modify things to make it safer? What are reasonable test times
and methods should they use to build pipes safer?  What sort of monitoring
should they do? Their job is distribution. They move product from point A to
B.  They want to know how to keep things safer because the last thing their
company wants is another leaky pipeline. If we can help them design things
safer or to explain why they should opt out of dealing with Line 9 all
together, now is the time to structure those arguments. The Line 9 project
report info is all online here:
http://www.neb-one.gc.ca/clf-nsi/rthnb/pplctnsbfrthnb/nbrdgln9phs1/nbrdgln9p
hs1-eng.html

This is a most unusual opportunity to foster greater public debate during an
NEB hearing. I didn't know that could be done but sure enough, it's
happening. I would really like GREN to be a part of this. Any contribution
we can make to give recommendations to prevent spills or prevent risks could
become a new industry standard. What say GREN?

Lulu 

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