Transmountain pipeline

This pipeline is opposed by millions of people, hundreds of First Nations, and dozens of municipalities, including the cities of Vancouver and Burnaby. Tens of thousands have demonstrated against the Trans Mountain pipeline with over 200 having been arrested. The recent oil spill cause public outrage.

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Background Info

It was built before environmental regulations existed and before Indigenous people could even vote, the Trans Mountain pipeline begins moving oil in 1953. On June 18, 2019 the Government of Canada

approved⁠

the Trans Mountain Expansion Project;

It will be approximately 980 km of new pipeline,

73 per cent of the route will use the existing right-of-way, 16 per cent will follow other linear infrastructure such as telecommunications, Hydro or highways and 11 per cent will be new right-of-way,

It will include 193 km of reactivated pipeline,

12 new pump stations will be built,

The existing pipeline will carry refined products, synthetic crude oils, and light crude oils with the capability for heavy crude oils,

The new pipeline will carry heavier oils with the capability for transporting light crude oils,

It’s expected to cost approximately $12.6* billion.,

The combined impact on government revenue for construction and the first 20 years of expanded operations is $46.7 billion; revenues that can be used for public services such as health care and education – British Columbia receives $5.7 billion, Alberta receives $19.4 billion and the rest of Canada receives $21.6 billion.

Oil spill

Indigenous leaders and environmental groups in British Columbia are asking the Federal and BC governments to launch an independent, Indigenous-led expert investigation into the safety and integrity of the existing 67-year-old Trans Mountain pipeline after a 150,000 litre oil spill over the weekend. It is the pipeline’s 85th spill. Indigenous leaders and groups are also asking for a moratorium on construction for the new pipeline.

“This is the fourth time in 15 years that the existing Trans Mountain pipeline has had an oil spill on our land,” said Chief Dalton Silver. “Without an independent, transparent and scientific investigation into the safety of this old pipeline, we have no confidence in Trans Mountain’s ability to build the new pipeline without inflicting more damage to our territory. The proposed pipeline expansion plans would disturb Lightning Rock site – a cultural site and burial grounds significant to the Sema:th First Nation and Stό:lō Coast Salish. Condition 77 required a detailed cultural heritage study on the potential impacts of the project on the site to be filed and approved three months before any work commenced in the area. Trans Mountain has yet to meet that condition. Victims of a 1782 smallpox epidemic are buried around Lightning Rock, which sits on the slopes of Sumas Mountain.”

(

Standearth.com⁠

)

Approximately 190,000 litres of oil escaped through this breach. This raises concerns about the integrity of the aging infrastructure and the need for a wholesale engineering and design review. The escaped oil breached the pump station altogether, and spilled onto adjacent lands, threatening if not damaging an ancestral Sema:th cultural site and posing a serious risk to the aquifer and local water quality. The structure is not as perfect as they are

showing it⁠

How to help

Sign these petitions to help the issue:

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