Enbridge applies for second phase of pipeline reversal

Environmental group says documents confirm tar sands oil will be pumped east for export
by Tim Groves
Originally posted at toronto.mediacoop.ca

Enbridge has filed documents with the National Energy Board (NEB) asking for the second phase of permission for their plan to reverse the flow of an existing pipeline that runs between Sarnia and Montreal.

The group Environmental Defence, says that documents that Enbridge recently filed with the NEB confirm suspicions that the pipeline company is trying to pump tar sands oil to the East Coast for export – a claim that Enbridge has previously denied.

“The public has been kept in the dark about the full scale of Enbridge’s plans all along. Given the company’s track record of oil spills and failure to come clean about its plans, why should the Canadian public trust them now?” said Adam Scott, a spokes person for Environmental Defence. “Enbridge’s plan could put the drinking water of millions of people at risk of a tar sands oil spill, all in the name of exporting more raw tar sands oil.”

The Enbridge paper work, filed on October 10th, is for the second phase of their proposal to reverse a pipeline known as Line 9. If approved this will allow Enbridge to pump the dirty oil between Hamilton and Montreal. Earlier this year the NEB approved the reversal of a section of Line 9 that runs between Sarnia and Hamilton.

“Enbridge’s plan to increase the volume of oil shipped through Line 9 to 300,000 barrels per day suggests this is about exporting raw oil, not domestic refining jobs,” asserts Environmental Defence in a press release. They contend that the purpose of the pipeline is to pump Tar Sand oil to the East Coast for export.

“The current Line 9 leaves those of us along the route with the choice of whether to accept more of this devastation, or to step up and try to reverse it”said Toban Black, an environmental justice organizer based out of Kitchener.

“The fossil fuel industry will expand by any means possible if it is not dismantled.”

He is part of a growing grassroots resistance to the pipeline project in First Nations and cities along the route of the pipeline.

“What is crucial right now is informing the public about the threats to Ontario, Québec, and the Great Lakes. The issues with this pipeline are not well-known, so people can’t decide whether they want to oppose it,” Black told the Toronto Media Co-op in an email.

“We must find ways to oppose this project in localities along the route.”

According to Enbridge the pipeline passes through or near these 115 communities.

Tim Groves is an investigative researcher and journalist based in Toronto. He can be reached at timgrovesreports [@] gmail.com. For more information on his work and writing, click here.

Rally This Wednesday

9am, Wednesday October 17th
Hamilton City Hall (Main st, between Bay and McNab)
Join us for a half-hour rally before your workday starts

On Wednesday October 17, the General Issues Committee (GIC) of the Hamilton city council will be receiving a report from their staff about Enbridge’s reversal of their Line 9 pipeline. Line 9 runs through Hamilton and is being reversed to move Tar Sands oil to eastern Canada, ports on the Atlantic, and the United States. After the Conservative federal government cancelled the envrionmental assessment of this plan (along with thousands of other EAs), Hamilton city council decided to commission their own study of the issue.

We are optimistic about the council’s decision to study the Line 9 reversal, and we are gathering on the 17th at 9am to ask council to do everything in their power to oppose the Line 9 reversal and any attempt to move Tar Sands oil through the Hamilton area. We will rally until about 9:30, then attend the meeting of the GIC to support the speakers calling on council to oppose the Line 9 reversal. A representative from Enbridge had been scheduled to address council as well, but after twice changing the date, they have now backed out all together. This is a continuation of
Enbridge’s plan of secrecy and dishonesty, as they refuse to reveal their full plan for Line 9.

The Tar Sands produces the dirtiest oil in the world – its extraction has devastated the Athabaska river, and accidents in transporting the toxic gloop have lead to more than a dozen deaths in Michigan, following a
pipeline burst into Michigan’s Kalamazoo river. All pipelines spill. If Tar Sands oil travels down Line 9, this thirty-five year-old pipeline will experience more frequent leaks of more toxic oil directly into the Beverly
Swamp in the headwaters of the Spencer Creek, Hamilton’s largest watershed.

This dirty, inefficient oil also drives the catastrophic climate change, of which Hamilton got a taste this past summer with the record-breaking heat and drought. We also call for the Federal government to respect the sovereignty and treaty rights of Indigenous nations, both in Alberta and locally. Line 9 crosses the territory of the Haudenosaunee, and in the spirit of the Two Row wampum treaty, we call on the municipal government to help see these treaties upheld.

We organize in Hamilton as part of a broader movement to stop the flows of Tar Sands oil, of the natural gas that fuels its extraction, and the money that props the industry up. This movement did not begin with Hamilton’s council and it will not end with it. But this is a chance for Hamilton’s government to be on the right side of this issue and to lend their support to the grassroots struggles that will keep stopping the Line 9 reversal and the Tar Sands – with or without them.

Please Pass Along