[All] Fw: Concerns regarding Humber River Spills response.

[Louisette Lanteigne]

Good grief. Nobody called the NEB about the Humber Spill so I am sending this letter to the board members at the NEB. 

Lulu 

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Louisette Lanteigne <butterflybluelu at rogers.com>
To: Sheri.young at neb-one.gc.ca 
Sent: Wednesday, August 13, 2014 9:10:08 AM
Subject: Concerns regarding Humber River Spills response.
 



Hello Ms. Young

Please relay this correspondence to the Board on my behalf please. 

Thanks you

Louisette Lanteigne
700 Star Flower Ave.
Waterloo Ont.
N2V 2L2

___________________________________________________________________


Dear Members of the Board, 

On May 31, 2014 I read an article titled, Spill Reported in Humber River in North Toronto as published by the Toronto Star. The article states:

-Toronto Fire at first reported that the cause was a spill from a high-pressure oil pipeline


-District Chief John Zovak told CP24 the incident was raised to a Level 2 hazmat call to bring in extra resources to identify the spill site. The station reported that 40 firefighters and 10 trucks were called in to help identify the source.


http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2014/05/31/spill_reported_in_humber_river_in_north_toronto.html

The concern that I have from this event is the simple fact that the NEB was not contacted or engaged in this investigation. I verified this with an NEB staff member Jeremy Demtruk on August 12, 2014 by way of phone conversation at approximately 2:15 pm. 

It may be an oversight or a one time mistake but then again it may reflect a culture of complacency. The fact remains that over a 6 year period, the Humber River has been hit with 900 oil spills and 750 chemical spills as reported by the Toronto Star on Friday November 2, 2007 in an article titled Humber River, A Major Concern written by reporter Paul Moloney. That article is on line here: 


http://www.thestar.com/news/2007/11/02/humber_river_a_major_concern.html 


Of these 900 spills, how many of were actually brought to the attention of the NEB? How many spills have occurred in this area since 2007?

In my view, it appears as though the current protocol in Toronto is for the municipality and MOE to bypass consultation with the NEB choosing to conduct their own investigation and clean up "in house". This approach is unacceptable and poses a serious risk. 

We have preventative policies in place where if there is one pollution infringement, charges can be laid and if there are repeat offences, fines increase to create a greater fiscal incentive for compliance. The problem is, if the municipal emergency services fails to properly report the incidents we cannot assure that these preventative policies will be reasonably implemented as designed. 

The NEB has jurisdictional power to address pipeline leaks. Toronto's Fire Department and Police as well as the MOE were informed about the spill but the question remains: Who is responsible for NOT contacting the NEB? 

I would like to request that the board investigate this incident..  
 
With any suspected oil pipeline spill, the NEB should be contacted immediately. A conference call can be facilitated with the NEB, MOE and Municipal enforcement agencies to clarify the situation, what is being impacted and what the solution is. After that there should be updates on implementation and verification that the situation has been reasonably resolved.

If there is a failure to contact the NEB, it should be deemed an indictable offence


Thank you kindly for your time. 


Louisette Lanteigne
700 Star Flower Ave.
Waterloo Ont.
N2V 2L2
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://gren.ca/pipermail/all_gren.ca/attachments/20140813/ca01a048/attachment.html>