Faulty oil pipelines burst

Comments

Faulty oil pipelines burst 50% more often

Government stats misleading: Notley

EDMONTON – Ed Stelmach’s slippery reputation on the environment got even oilier today following a report showing a rapid rise in the number of bursting oil pipelines in Alberta.

“The Conservatives are stuffing so many oil pipes into the ground that they can’t keep up with monitoring. This report is clear: more pipes are bursting and more toxic oil is spilling into our environment,” NDP environmental critic Rachel Notley said today.

She was responding to a new Energy Resources Conservation Board report stating that 23 oil pipes ruptured last year, compared to 16 ruptures in 2006.

“The Conservatives want us to believe the number of ruptures is going down and have listed useless statistics in their public release. That’s trickery, and the people of this province aren’t stupid.

“It’s bad enough we have the tailings ponds nightmare to sort out. Now we have to worry about oil leaking into our clean lakes and rivers,” Notley said.

The report also notes that of 508 incidents investigated 15% were found to have resulted from non-compliant pipelines.

Notley is demanding more pipeline inspectors be hired to monitor the system.

The ERCB report can be viewed here:
http://www.ercb.ca/docs/products/STs/st99_current.pdf