‘It’s just a disaster waiting to happen’
But pilotage head says shipments through the Inside Passage comply with regulations
B.C.’s marine pilotage authority is challenging an environmental activist’s claim that the transportation of petroleum products off the coast using tugboats and barges is “a disaster waiting to happen.”
Three weeks ago, Denny Island resident Ingmar Lee posted a video online to highlight his concerns about an articulated tug and barge (ATB) hauling petroleum products from San Diego to Alaska through B.C.’s Inside Passage.
The video has since had close to 90,000 views and brought into focus what Lee sees as a looming threat to B.C.’s coastal waters.
“There’s an incredible, overwhelming interest in the tanker issue right now and there can be no more secrecy with it,” Lee told The Province.
“This Inside Passage, it’s just a disaster waiting to happen.”
But Capt. Kevin Obermeyer, president and CEO at Pacific Pilotage Authority, said the ATB complies with all marine regulations and the Canadian Shipping Act, and multiple redundancies are in place to ensure the vessel is seaworthy.
Each week, the tug Nathan E. Stewart, operated by the U.S.-based Kirby Corp., makes the trip pushing one of two barges, DBL-54 and DBL-55.
Each barge has a carrying capacity of 8,677 tonnes and is loaded with refined petroleum products including gasoline, diesel and aviation fuel, according to the Pacific Pilotage Authority, a Crown corporation that oversees safe pilotage in B.C.
Transport Canada has a policy preventing tankers of more than 40,000 tonnes deadweight from using the southern portion of the Inside Passage.
The ATB carries a fraction of that weight, but Lee said he’s worried about the potential for a disaster on the scale of the Exxon Valdez tanker spill, which struck a reef and dumped some 40,000 tonnes of oil off the coast of Alaska in 1989.
Lee said an example of the risk posed by the ATB can be seen in a 2011 incident report filed by the U.S. Coast Guard, when the Nathan E. Stewart was involved in a “potential spill” after losing power to both engines in rough Alaskan seas while pushing a loaded barge.
Lee said he wants such shipments rerouted away from the Inside Passage and hauled offshore by Aframax tankers instead.
He also wants companies that ship petroleum products using ATBs to be required to publicly post what’s inside their tanks.
Obermeyer said the ATB is required to use escort tugs when coming through the Burrard Inlet, and its barges do not haul bunker C fuel, the toxic fuel spilled by the tanker Marathassa in Vancouver’s English Bay two months ago.
“We all live on this coast and the last thing I want to see is any oil in the water,” Obermeyer said.
“My job is to make sure any vessel that’s approved to move moves safely and so we will make sure that whatever we do, we will have as many safety measures in place as possible.”
The transport of crude oil via ATBs would be a “different conversation,” Obermeyer said, and would warrant a full risk-assessment.
“We’re a trading nation — we need to trade, but we need to trade safely, and that’s the bottom line,” he said.