When dealing with pipelines, spills caused by ruptures or leaks in the line are inevitable. A study released by the Fraser Institute in August 2015 found that 1,226 spill incidents occurred on regulated pipelines in Canada between 2003-2013.
More concerning, the rate of pipeline ruptures, leaks or spills in Canada has tripled in the last decade. Thirteen reportable releases occurred for every 10,000 kilometres of pipeline in 2011 — up from four incidents per 10,000-km in just 2000. In the context of the Energy East Pipeline, this represents the potential, on average, of at least two ruptures per year along the route in New Brunswick. These are especially concerning figures given the corrosive nature of bitumen —which has been likened to sandblasting the inside of the pipe — and the likelihood of severe flooding or ice jam scour exposing the pipeline in our more powerful rivers, as experienced at the Yellowstone River in Ohio in 2010.
A pipeline of the magnitude of TransCanada’s Energy East can result in very costly oil spills. A prime example is the spill in the Kalamazoo River in Michigan, Mass., in July 2010, when more than 1-million gallons of diluted bitumen from the oilsands in Alberta (the same product Energy East would carry) spilled into the river. The dilbit floated for several days before sinking to the riverbed and was absorbed into the ground and water. It resulted in the costliest onshore cleanup in U.S. history, with a price tag of $767-million. The average cleanup cost of every crude oil spill from the past 10 years in the U.S. was $2,000 per barrel, the Kalamazoo spill of diluted bitumen, by contrast, cost upwards of $29,000 per barrel. Long-term cleanup of the spill remains unknown, as sunken bitumen can be absorbed or trapped by sediments and debris, becoming difficult or impossible to see and clean. Disturbances in the shoreline, habitats, wildlife and food chain can persist for years as deposits of bitumen can be released later and over time.
Enbridge, the company operating the pipeline which ruptured and spilled in the Kalamazoo, had assured the public its system could detect a leak within eight minutes. In fact, it was 17 hours before the spill was discovered and stopped. TransCanada Corp. claims it could detect and stop a leak in Energy East in 10 minutes. If that were true, a spill lasting 10 minutes would still spew one million litres of bitumen into the natural environment — enough oil to fill a hockey rink to the top of the boards.
In January 2015, an independent study commissioned by a municipality in Quebec determined that leaks in Energy East as large as 2.6-million litres per day could go undetected by TransCanada. The study found the SCADA leak detection system used by TransCanada cannot detect leaks less than 1.5% of daily volume. In a worst case scenario, a leak could gush millions of litres per day for many days without being detected by TransCanada’s computers. With luck, one of their biweekly aerial surveillance flights might detect it.
TransCanada has already had large spills, explosions, and other disasters with its pipelines. In February 2014, the CBC reported on instances where the company had been severely reprimanded by the federal regulator for “inadequate” field inspections and “ineffective” management.
Health costs
The 2013 Mayflower spill in Arkansas, in which a reported 5,000-7000 barrels of bitumen from the oilsands were spilled, was shown to have lasting effects on the water supply, which still shows signs of contamination more than two years later. Residents of Mayflower were showing symptoms of exposure to harmful chemicals such as Benzyne and Toluene more than four weeks after the spill. The incident occurred in a residential area, forcing 22 families to flee their homes.
Bitumen is much different than regular crude oil. The few studies which have been done on the heavy, toxic product have concluded that much more research and information is needed about its impact on human health and the natural environment.
In New Brunswick, the Energy East Pipeline would have different health consequences for different regions. In the Saint John area in southern New Brunswick, residents would be at risk of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) in the oil as well as the Benzyne contained in the proposed tank farms. If a spill similar to that which occurred in Kalamazoo took place, salmon waters, swimming rivers, and an estimated 5,000 direct jobs would be at risk – for example, fishermen and fish packers. Finally, rural landowners in New Brunswick would likely be the most impacted as a result of the pipeline. Not only will the pipeline run directly through rural landowners’ property, but a spill could also lead to destruction of generations of farms and crops such as potato fields. Aside from the risk of spills, there is also the risk of increased greenhouse gas emissions as a result of the pipeline.