"Why has Hydraulic Fracturing got a bad name?"
This poll has been completed on 29 February, 2012
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Crude Oil:
91.48
Natural Gas:
2.74
Alberta oil spill from Rainbow Pipeline
CTV.ca News Staff
Date: Fri. May. 6 2011 1:13 PM ET
Activists are asking the Alberta government to release more information on the pipeline that produced the province's worst oil spill in 30 years last week -- noting the pipeline was already on the province's radar after a previous spill in 2006.
Last Friday, the Rainbow Pipeline spewed 28,000 barrels of crude oil into a wetland near the Peace River, prompting a school closure in the First Nations community of Little Buffalo. The pipeline runs 770 kilometres from the northwest part of the province to Edmonton.
In 2006, the same pipeline leaked 7,840 barrels of oil into a creek near Slave Lake. Greenpeace says the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board blamed "stress corrosion cracking, fatigue cracking and external coating failure" for that leak.
"Since… corrosion caused the major spill from the Rainbow pipeline in 2006, it is time the Alberta government disclosed all information on the follow-up to the changes it ordered," said Melina Laboucan-Massimo, a member of the Lubicon Cree First Nation and Greenpeace activist, in a release.
After the 2006 spill, Plains Midstream Canada was ordered to lower the pressure in the Rainbow Pipeline, as well as increase surveillance, conduct all necessary repairs and change some of the processes that govern the pipeline's use.
On Thursday, Premier Ed Stelmach criticized the company, saying the pipeline would not be allowed to reopen until the cleanup effort surpasses provincial standards.
Plains Midstream Canada was expected to address the media to discuss the spill Friday afternoon, and has previously said the air quality near the site is at safe levels.
But according to the Pembina Institute, a think-tank with an extensive body of work on the tar sands, the spill could take years to clean up. Chris Severson-Baker, a managing director from the organization, told the Edmonton Journal that the region's water supply could be severely damaged if a major storm washed the oil into the subsoil or groundwater.
