[All] Line 9: Amazing developments

Sun May 27 22:40:54 EDT 2012

Awesome analysis and interventions.... great work Louisette.!   I 
believe GREN should be onto this also.   Norah

On 27/05/2012 9:40 PM, Jan Liggett wrote:
> LuLu, I envy you your stamina.  I congratulate you on your constant 
> results.
> Absolutely GREN should be part of this.
> Jan
>
>     ----- Original Message -----
>     *From:* Louisette Lanteigne <mailto:butterflybluelu at rogers.com>
>     *To:* all at gren.ca <mailto:all at gren.ca>
>     *Sent:* Thursday, May 24, 2012 8:44 PM
>     *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/nbrdgln9phs1-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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