Pipeline endangers water: Report

A new report says a pipeline that would carry one million barrels of oil daily from Alberta to the East Coast would threaten the drinking water of more than 60 per cent of Manitoba residents.

The report by the Manitoba Energy Justice Coalition said a rupture on the proposed Energy East pipeline would seep into any number of waterways which feed into Winnipeg’s water supply.

The pipeline transporting oil from Alberta and Saskatchewan to refineries and port terminals on the East Coast would partly run underneath an aqueduct carrying Winnipeg’s drinking water from Shoal Lake near the Ontario boundary.

Dennis LeNeveu, a retired biophysicist and author of the report, said a 40-year old repurposed natural gas line would be used across Manitoba. Such pipelines can get corroded and have ruptured four times in Manitoba in the last 20 years, he said.

The entire length of Winnipeg’s 100-year-old aqueduct would be in danger of contamination from the pipeline, which would run parallel to it, LeNeveu said.

“Small, continuous, undetected leaks will occur and seep unseen into the ground, causing ground and surface water contamination,” he said following the release of the report Monday. “One spill, one leak — it doesn’t have to be a big leak — almost anywhere along that line can be carried over our aqueduct.”

There would also be “a significant risk of rupture and explosion” from a nearby natural gas line in Manitoba, LeNeveu said. Such an explosion could “easily be as large or larger” than the train derailment and explosion that killed 47 people in Lac-Mégantic, Que., almost two years ago, the report said.

“The smoke plume from such an explosion and fire could necessitate the immediate evacuation of the entire population of Winnipeg should it occur nearby.”

Calgary-based TransCanada Corp., the company behind the $12-billion pipeline, said it would be safe. Spokesman Tim Duboyce said the company already does a thorough inspection of the existing line with technology that can detect erosion as small as a pencil tip.

Such defects are immediately repaired, he said. Energy East would be monitored around the clock and would be shut down the minute any leak were detected.

“We’re proceeding with the preparation of this project with safety at top of mind,” Duboyce said.