Another Alberta Oil Spill Should Prompt Review

Alberta oil pipeline | BCBusiness
Another oil spill in Alberta has environmental groups calling for a provincial investigation.

The third oil spill in a month should prompt our neighbouring province to launch an investigation into problems around Alberta’s oil pipelines.

June hasn’t been kind to our neighbours to the east: Alberta residents are currently cleaning up the third oil spill in a month.
 
The most recent spill occurred just outside of Elk Point, Alta., which is around 200 kilometres north of Edmonton. On Tuesday the Energy Resources Conservation Board reported that the Athabasca pipeline has leaked around 1,450 barrels of oil and the pumping station has since been closed.
 
Enbridge operates the pipeline, which transports sweet crude from the oilsands in Fort McMurray to Hardisty, a major pipeline hub in the province. The spill doesn’t exactly make Enbridge’s case for its Northern Gateway pipeline to the West Coast.
 
The hits just keep coming for Alberta residents. In addition to this week’s spill, residents are still reeling from an 800,000-litre spill from a well operated by Pace Oil & Gas Ltd. close to the border shared with the Northwest Territories, and another 160,000- to 480,000-litre spill into the Red Deer River.
 
Environmental groups are calling for the province to further investigate the cause behind the wealth of spills. And considering the province has seen three major leaks in the last few weeks, I would suspect a number of folks living in areas around the spills would be up in arms as well.