Oil: Coastal safety is of paramount concern

Re: “With pipeline dead, guard the strait” (editorial, 11-13).

Trans Mountain shares the value that people on both sides of the border place on the environment, and we believe the safety of our coastline is paramount.

We’ve been safely transporting oil products for 60 years without a single spill from a tanker. Our safety regime meets global standards and includes navigation aids, established shipping lanes, tug escorts, vessel traffic monitoring, pilotage, inspections and mandatory spill response arrangements.

About 6,000 large commercial vessels transit toward Vancouver, B.C., or Washington ports each year; 600 of those are tankers. Today our terminal serves about five partially loaded Aframax tankers per month, and if our project is approved this could increase to up to 34.

In reality, we’re only a small part of the existing traffic, and our expansion proposes the same sized vessels, shipping the same products.

That said, we’re proposing additional measures to enhance safety, including a $100 million investment in Western Canada Marine Response Corporation to double spill response capabilities and cut mandated response times in half.

We know that Canada and the U.S have a shared interest in the safe transport of oil and that our coastal waterways are of significant cultural, economic and environmental value. Learn more at www.transmountain.com.

This story was originally published November 23, 2015 at 2:05 PM with the headline "Oil: Coastal safety is of paramount concern."