Doubt cast on tankers
The use of double-hull tankers to ship oil delivered by Enbridge’s proposed oil pipeline would not eliminate the threat of a spill on B.C.‘s north coast, according to a new report from a B.C.-based environmental group.
The limitations of double-hull tankers mean the vessels are not a panacea for oil spill prevention, according to the report released Thursday by Living Oceans Society, based in Sointula on B.C.‘s central coast.
“They may reduce the severity of an oil spill from a grounding or low energy collision, but they are susceptible to a range of design, construction, operation, and maintenance issues,” the report said.
“Furthermore, double hulls do not address the role of human factors in tanker casualties, which have been attributed to as much as 80 per cent of oil discharges.”
Their complex design and structure makes double-hull tankers potentially more vulnerable to problems associated with poor maintenance and operation, the report said.
Double hull tankers that are poorly made, operated and maintained may actually increase the risk of an oil spill compared with single-hull vessels, according to the report.
Enbridge’s website for the Northern Gateway project describes double-hull vessels as reducing the risk of cargo being released into the ocean. Global regulations will require all new deepsea tankers to be double-hulled by 2015.
In 1989, the U.S. Coast Guard said that if the Exxon Valdez had been double hulled, the spill that year would have been reduced by as much as 60 per cent, and as little as 25 per cent, the report said.
Oil spills have been declining but continue to occur, said the report, citing three incidents over the past two years.
Enbridge’s controversial $5.5-billion project would see twin pipelines link Alberta’s oilsands with Kitimat, from where oil would be shipped by tanker to Pacific Rim markets.
The project is being jointly assessed by the National Energy Board and the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency.