Kitsilano (Vancouver) Coast Guard Station Closure by Harper

B.C. Premier Christy Clark has blasted the federal government's response to Wednesday's oil spill in Vancouver's English Bay, saying it may be time to hand over responsibility to the province.

Speaking from her office in Vancouver, Clark said the six-hour delay in placing booms around the leaking tanker and the 12-hour delay notifying the city showed a shortage of "good judgment" and "nimbleness." ...

Both the federal and provincial efforts were also criticized earlier Friday by Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson, who called the efforts "totally inadequate."

 'Somebody needs to do a better job of protecting the coast, and the coast guard has not done it,' says B.C. Premier Christy Clark. (CBC)

 Robertson blamed the federal and provincial governments for a lack of leadership in responding to the spill — now identified as toxic bunker fuel — saying he had several significant questions about the level of co-ordination.

"The citizens of Vancouver are very frustrated. We don't know what the total impact will be on our environment. We don't know how much of that toxic substance sunk to the bottom and will be a long-term hazard in our waters," said Robertson. 

Politicians were out in force today condemning the response to the oil spill in English Bay. Many blamed the closure of the Kitsilano Coast Guard station for what's seen as an inadequate reaction. Mayor Gregor Robertson criticized the provincial and federal governments, while federal Liberal leader Justin Trudeau and Vancouver-Centre MP Hedy Fry weighed in on social media and promised a Liberal government would re-open the coast guard station. Vancouver residents, meanwhile, shared their outrage on Twitter and offered help with the cleanup. 

Tell me again how we'll get tankers through the Douglas channel safely when we can't even prevent a spill in burrard inlet. #VanFuelSpill ...

This spill off the coast should open your eyes. No beaches, no fun. Panels, not pipelines. #bcpoli #VanFuelSpill ...

Another reason we don't need vessels carrying oil as their main purpose in our water ways #VanFuelSpill #NoPipelines https://twitter.com/CityofVancouve

Thanks for the information. Of course I heard of the oil spill (yet another...) but I appreciate the backstory about the government's funding cuts to needed safety infrastructure in your area. Is there more at the Tyee?

 

Vancouver just got a small whiff of what a sevenfold increase in tanker traffic could mean for a place aspiring to be the world's greenest city. On a calm afternoon in English Bay this week, a grain freighter at anchor apparently started leaking bunker fuel into the scenic waters off Stanley Park.

Local residents and their municipal government were not informed for 13 hours. The Coast Guard was ostensibly in charge of the cleanup, but its private sector partners at West Coast Marine Response Corporation took six hours to start skimming the oil and nine hours to put a boom around the leaking vessel.

Making matters worse was the apparently invisible response from the federal government. While the Vancouver Aquarium staff and police boats were doing what they could to pitch in, where were Transport Canada and Environment Canada?

Years of federal downsizing and program cuts have come home to roost. The Environment Canada Environmental Emergencies office in Vancouver was closed by the federal government in 2012 and moved to Montreal. Sixty staff nationwide specifically trained to deal with oil spills lost their jobs.

The Harper government also mothballed the Kitsilano Coast Guard station in 2013 that used to be one of the busiest in the country. This life-threatening decision to local mariners saved Ottawa the whopping sum of $700,000 per year. Coast Guard officials gamely maintained that the closure had no impact on their reaction to the spill. However, a former commander at the station told a local radio station that had the station been operating, the response time would have been six minutes instead of six hours.

Meanwhile, Ottawa is cheerleading virtually every pipeline proposal in the country while gutting the National Energy Board to the point that citizens are now suing Ottawa for denying them due process in public hearings.

The bunker fuel now fouling the shores of English Bay is the barely refined dregs of crude oil and highly toxic. While officials maintain that almost all the oil has been recovered, the fact is that even a successful oil spill cleanup oftenrecovers only about 15 per cent of what is spilled. Two days later and we still don't know what exactly was in the oil, so residents and volunteers are being told to stay away from their beloved beaches, even to try to clean them. ...

Obviously, a larger spill would have catastrophic consequences for one of the most iconically beautiful cities in the world. Visitors from around the world are drawn to Vancouver's magnificent waterfront,injecting some $4 billion into local businesses each year.

While bunker fuel is bad, diluted bitumen is far worse. Kinder Morgan wants to massively scale up tanker shipments through Vancouver of this hazardous mixture of volatile solvents and tar from Alberta's oilsands. A major difference is that bunker fuel floats, and bitumen typically doesn't. ...

This brings us to the second scary difference between bunker fuel and diluted bitumen. More than two-thirds of residents near the Kalamazoo spill began experiencing headaches, nausea, and dizziness after inhaling the toxic fumes from volatile solvents used to thin the thick tar so it can be pumped through a pipeline. Local health authorities declared a voluntary evacuation zone for people within a mile of the spill. What would be the public health implications of a diluted bitumen spill in the Lower Mainland, home to more than two million people? ...

While pipeline projects are portrayed as an economic imperative, an oil spill would be economically disastrous if it closed Canada's busiest port for a protracted cleanup. Parts of the Kalamazoo River remained closed three years after the Enbridge spill as crews dredged the sunken tar from the river bottom.

Anyone who still thinks that bitumen tankers pose no risk to our coast, or that Ottawa sincerely cares deeply about protecting our environment should go down to English Bay and inhale deeply. That could be the smell of our oily future. 

University of Victoria professor Chris Tollefson, executive director of the environmental law centre, agreed the response had fallen far short of world-class standards.

“No one could claim that comes even close to a proper and adequate response. And the reality is this is a spill that should have been easy to deal with in a short space of time. ... Most spills occur in much more remote and difficult waters and difficult conditions.

“If we can’t respond to a run-of-the-mill spill like this ... then I think that really speaks volumes about how prepared we are.”

 

Tollefson added that the English Bay spill should raise awareness about the environmental cost of frequent smaller spills in B.C. and around the globe.

“We’ve been focused on catastrophic spills, where a tanker’s cargo discharges,” he said. “But, globally, it’s clear that chronic, smaller spills — often from bilges or bunker breaches — are often the larger and more significant environmental hazard. Many go undetected initially and the cumulative impact is huge.”

A 2006 study published in Marine Ornithology reported that 62 per cent of beached bird carcasses in Newfoundland and Labrador were oiled, compared with 56 per cent on the west coast of Vancouver Island. A 2010 study in Marine Pollution Bulletin found that even thin sheens of oil and drilling fluids — legally discharged from offshore oil facilities on the east coast — can affect the ability of seabirds’ feathers to maintain warmth.

Tollefson said that during National Energy Board hearings into Kinder Morgan’s planned twinning of its pipeline from Alberta, he sought unsuccessfully to have the company study the increased risks of chronic spills that may result from increased oil tanker traffic.

 

The Canadian Coast Guard’s claim that Western Canada Marine Response Corp. recovered about 80 per cent of an estimated 2,700 litres of bunker oil spilled is also drawing criticism. Western Canada Marine refused to comment on Friday.

“Be very skeptical,” said Karen Wristen, executive director of the Living Oceans Society. “Everybody’s interest is to minimize the amount spilled and maximize the amount recovered and I’m not buying any of it until the dust has settled.”

The coast guard did not immediately respond to the criticism.

According to the London-based International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation, even in ideal conditions in oceans around the world, only 10 to 15 per cent of oil is likely to be recovered.

On Dec. 23, 1988, the Sause Brothers barge Nestucca released about 874,000 litres of bunker oil off Grays Harbor, Wash. The oil drifted north with the currents, including up to the west coast of Vancouver Island as far as Cape Scott. The oil washed up on beaches, and up to 56,000 seabirds are thought to have died. Crab, shellfish and herring were affected along with First Nations fishing practices. Washington and B.C. cleaned up an estimated 11 per cent of the oil.

The political fallout from Wednesday's English Bay oil spill may prove as hard to contain as the toxic fuel that outpaced and eluded Canada’s sluggish cleanup response.

The political finger pointing was fierce Friday as Premier Christy Clark criticized the federal government for its “totally inadequate” response and opposition MPs hammered Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservatives for federal cuts they say undermine the ability to deal with spills on the west coast.

The stakes are high. The Harper Government has been busy touting Canada’s oil response capabilities as “world class” while aligning itself with major pipeline projects that would see supertankers filled with oil become regular fixtures in English Bay, Burrard Inlet and northern coastal waters.

The spill comes in an election year, and experts say it could harden resistance to Kinder Morgan’s proposed Trans Mountain pipeline expansion and damage the Conservatives in some south coast ridings. ...

Clark said in a Friday news conference she had contacted the prime minister’s office to demand changes. “Somebody needs to do a better job of protecting this coast, and the coast guard hasn’t done it,” she said. “It is totally unacceptable that we don’t have the spill response that we require here and the federal government needs to step up.”

Opposition MPs took aim at Tories they say will be punished in the scheduled October election for keeping silent over federal cuts to West Coast marine safety and the closure of the Kitsilano Canadian Coast Guard station in 2013.

Liberal leader Justin Trudeau said Harper’s cuts undermined the spill response.

“I used to live in this neighbourhood, and I know that any spills of this nature are of serious concern to British Columbians and all Canadians,” Trudeau, a former teacher at the West Point Grey Academy, said in a statement.

New Democratic Party MP Kennedy Stewart said problems managing a relatively minor spill underscore concerns about Kinder Morgan’s proposed expansion and raises doubts about the federal government’s long-standing pledge to create a “world class” tanker safety system. “When the public health authorities are saying ‘don’t touch this stuff because it’s toxic, don’t go to the beaches,’ it’s a wake-up call for folks here,” said Stewart, the MP for Burnaby Douglas. “If you want to become a major industrial oil export port like Rotterdam, you’re not going to be able to enjoy your beaches, and that’s a choice the region is going to have to make.”

Industry Minister James Moore said Friday afternoon that 80 per cent of the spill was contained and cleaned up within 36 hours. “I think that’s very impressive.” ...

The oil spill could lead some wavering Lower Mainland voters to back Liberal, NDP or Green candidates, Harrison said, but it may not overturn any strong Conservative ridings.

“The polling has indicated for a few years now that the thing British Columbians are most concerned about when it comes to these pipelines is tankers on the coast, and I think for many British Columbians what happened in Vancouver was a wake-up call,” she said.

Liberal MP Joyce Murray, representing Vancouver Quadra in Ottawa said Lower Mainland Tory MPs like Industry Minister James Moore (Port Moody-Westwood-Port Coquitlam), Minister of State (seniors) Alice Wong (Richmond), John Weston (West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky Country) and Andrew Saxton (North Vancouver) will be targeted for not speaking out against the cuts. She cited Transport Canada documents indicating that marine safety spending went from $82 million in 2009-10 to $57.5 million in 2015-16. ...

Mayor Gregor Robertson said he cut a vacation short to return to Vancouver after he heard about the spill. He said when he asked Moore why it took so long for the Coast Guard to launch a response to the spill and then notify the city, Moore “reflected back to me having some of those same questions.”

“But that’s not good enough when we’re in the middle of an oil spill.”

He said residents and volunteer corps are on hand to help, but city staff need direction from the provincial and federal ministries of environment “to notify us, first of all, what the substance is and how toxic it is” before launching any cleanup of local beaches.

“They are responsible for this (and) at this point, we don’t seem to have any clear guidance on our next step,” Robertson said.

Rashid Sumalia, director and professor with the fisheries economic research unit at the University of British Columbia, says the spill will not only impact marine life, but also food security and jobs related to fishing and tourism.

"Tourism is a lot about perception, so once people start to think that our waters are polluted with toxic oil, that can really affect [the tourism industry]," he said. "The consequences of that can be long because perceptions can hang on for a long time."

Sumalia says it could be a while before the full economic and environmental impacts are felt. Bunker fuel is very difficult to clean up, and some of it is bound to be left behind in the waters, he said.

He points to a 2007 spill in San Francisco Bay, where 58,000 gallons (220,000 litres) of bunker fuel leaked from a container ship that had rammed into a bridge.

That spill affected many fish embryo, Sumalia said. It was also reported that the slick killed 6,800 birds and thousands more fish.

Vancouver oil spill removed from water, coast guard says (cbc.ca)

Assistant commissioner Roger Girouard says flight showed only about 6 litres left in English Bay

Robert-Mac wrote:

This article makes no sense. Only 6 litres left in English Bay? Only 6 litres of a total of 2,700 litres spilt? How could they have recovered all 2,700 litres except for 6 litres. This makes no sense since in most spills about 80% is never recovered. Send your reporter out to clarify what you are reporting.

The Canadian Coast Guard’s claim that Western Canada Marine Response Corp. recovered about 80 per cent of an estimated 2,700 litres of bunker oil spilled is also drawing criticism. Western Canada Marine refused to comment on Friday.

“Be very skeptical,” said Karen Wristen, executive director of the Living Oceans Society. “Everybody’s interest is to minimize the amount spilled and maximize the amount recovered and I’m not buying any of it until the dust has settled.”

The coast guard did not immediately respond to the criticism.

According to the London-based International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation, even in ideal conditions in oceans around the world, only 10 to 15 per cent of oil is likely to be recovered.

Coast Guard employees have been warned against publicly criticizing the closing of the Kitsilano base, but retiring officer Gerry Moores says he has nothing to lose.

(Con Industry Minister James)Moores spoke out about the pending closure to CTV News Friday, his last day on the job after 36 years of service.

“Now I can come out with a vengeance. It’s the time the story be told,” he said.

The Harper government has made dramatic cuts in spending on aviation, marine and rail transport safety over the past five years, even as it was touting new safety measures in the transportation sector.

The latest figures from the federal government’s public accounts show actual spending by Transport Canada on marine safety has plunged 27% since 2009-10, while aviation and rail safety spending are both down 20% or more.

English Bay Oil Spill...And Just What Would Have Been Different If The Coast Guard Base Was Still There?HowMuchDoesItCostToDestroyAPublicWaterwayAnyway
SevenHundredThousandPerYearVille ...

The response itself likely would have been much, much more effective from the get-go as noted by the former Kits Coast Guard commander who, as Laila noted in her excellent post late last night, called in to the Simi Sara show on NW yesterday afternoon:

” …former Kits base commander Fred Moxey, who told us that a special pollution response boat formerly stationed at the now shuttered Kitsilano Coast Guard base is sitting empty with no crew at Sea Island base in Richmond. According to Moxey, only a rubber boat from the Coast Guard responded to the English Bay oil spill last night. Moxey also told us the Osprey formerly stationed at Kits was dismantled and sold off then when the base was closed. Moxey says if Kits Base was still active today crews would have been on scene at the spill in six minutes with the equipment to deal with the situation...”

NDP MP demands Kitsilano coast guard station be re-opened after an accident in English Bay over the weekend

Global News : Tuesday, March 05, 2013 12:00 AM

 

The federal NDP is demanding the Kitsilano coast guard station be re-opened after an accident in English Bay over the weekend.

On Saturday, a sailboat broke loose from its moorings and ran aground off Spanish Banks.

Don Davies, the NDP MP for Vancouver Kingsway, told the House of Commons the accident was a “close call.”

He says it took way too long for help to arrive.

Davies says Sea Island took 31 minutes instead of 11 minutes, and would have been at least an hour if the accident had taken place in Burrard inlet.

The MP says the situation will get worse in the summer with more marine traffic and families on vacation.

The federal government shut down the coast guard base nearly two weeks ago, and has already begun to dismantle the facility.

The BC Oil Spill and the Con Clown James Moore 

It couldn't have been a more monstrous or absurd sight.

A day after a ship leaked about 3,000 litres of bulk oil into Vancouver's beautiful English Bay, 

And a few hours after the province's premier and the city's mayor blasted the slow federal response.

The monstrous Con beluga James Moore broke through the oily sheen to spout off at his critics. 

Federal Industry Minister James Moore hit back at criticism of the Canadian Coast Guard's handling of the Vancouver oil spill, saying that it is "highly inappropriate for politicians to point fingers and make political jabs" before all the facts are known.

And if you can believe it, accuse them of fear mongering.

"The public expects serious issues to be handled in a serious tone," Moore said. "I think it is irresponsible for people to dial up anxiety and fear." 

When in fact the response was incredibly slow, if the ship had been carrying dilbits or the weather had been worse, it would have been even more of a disaster.

And if Harper regime hadn't closed the nearby Kitsilano Coast Guard station the response would have been much much faster.

But then what can we expect from the Cons? When Moore defended the closing of the station three years ago while claiming that Vancouver would have "the best coastal safety in the whole of Canada."

West went on to mention the proposed expansion by Kinder Morgan of its Trans Mountain pipeline between Strathcona County, near Edmonton, Alberta, and Burnaby in B.C.

The project would twin the pipeline, increasing its capacity from 300,000 barrels per day to 890,000 barrels per day.

The $5.4-billion expansion also includes 20 new tanks to be added to the storage terminals in Burnaby and Sumas in B.C., and in Edmonton.

The Westridge Marine Terminal in Burnaby would be upgraded with three new berths.

West said: “Kinder Morgan’s proposed pipeline and tanker project would see an increase from the current 80 tankers a year to over 400 tankers a year carrying primarily tar sands bitumen which is more likely to sink in the marine environment potentially causing significant harm.”

And when the Cons staged a photo-op two years ago to promote their so-called tanker safety program.

The oil recovery vessel ran aground.

An oil spill recovery vessel ran aground en route to a federal announcement on oil tanker safety in Vancouver on Monday, officials have confirmed. 

The vessel was making a 12-hour trip from its base in Esquimalt to Vancouver for a tanker safety announcement by Federal Transport Minister Denis Lebel and Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver when it struck an uncharted sandbar near Sandheads at the mouth of the Fraser River near Steveston.

Leaving the hapless Joe Oliver standing on the dock looking as stupid or criminally irresponsible as Moore looked today...

 

And the good news?

If there is anybody in beautiful British Columbia who still thinks that Northern Gateway wouldn't be a disaster, they clearly need to be watered not fed.

It is a wake-up call. 

Joe Spears calls it a wake-up call. An international shipping expert, Spears says Canada is supposed to be a world leader at dealing with maritime emergencies. But he says the response to an oil spill into Vancouver's English Bay on Thursday was anything but world class.

And this is the lesson:

A Con is a Con is a Con artist.

And you can't trust the Bitumen Boys as far as you can spit...