Stop the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion and protect orcas!

The Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project could push Southern Resident Orcas closer to extinction. We can't let this happen.

Will you help to provide British Columbia with enough critical comments to stop this dirty pipeline project?

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To whom it may concern,

Climate change is already having a massive impact on our planet. That impact is only going to grow as forest fires, floods, and extreme weather events become more and more common. It is time for polluting pipelines including high carbon sources of oil like Canada’s tar sands, to be stopped before more damage is sustained.

The Trans Mountain Pipeline is not only a threat to our climate, but also to the last 74 Southern Resident orcas remaining. This threatened species has already lost 60-90% of their ability to use echolocation for hunting and communicating due to noise from shipping traffic. Added tankers from the Trans Mountain Pipeline will only further threaten their dwindling population.

The Trans Mountain Pipeline endangers the shared waters of the US and Canada, our shared ecosystems, and our shared climate. These are risks we cannot afford and do not choose for ourselves. This project would increase both the likelihood and the severity of a major oil spill on the West Coast of North America.

The Trans Mountain pipeline expansion is expected to increase the number of oil tankers originating in the Westridge Marine Terminal from 50 a year to over 400 a year — at least a 700% increase. In addition to the cumulative impacts of vessel traffic to marine life, including the critically endangered Southern Resident orcas, this project increases the risk of a catastrophic oil spill to an unacceptable rate. A study commissioned by the City of Vancouver shows that there is 79-87% likelihood of a major oil spill.

The proposed Trans Mountain pipeline expansion would bring more diluted bitumen into the shared waters of the Salish Sea and given that California refineries are a likely destination for most of the expanded capacity, all along the coast from Washington to Los Angeles. This heavy oil sinks when spilled and is virtually impossible to recover. Although the industry claims to have measures in place to address a sinking oil spill, in reality, past spills have revealed that there is no adequate way to respond to this type of spill that protects water quality and wildlife. We have seen multiple examples, including along the Kalamazoo River, where spilled diluted bitumen persisted in the environment for years despite targeted clean-up efforts and ultimately became the United States’ most expensive inland oil spills. This project poses an unacceptable threat to our shoreline communities and increasingly vulnerable marine ecosystem.

The increased tanker traffic and diluted bitumen spill risk is also a grave threat to the already-endangered Southern Resident orca population. There are just 74 members of this species left, and such a large increase in tanker traffic would add an unacceptable amount of stress to the already fragile population. A major spill could doom the entire orca population to extinction. The tankers also represent a significant threat to other threatened and endangered species such as the humpback whale, the stellar sea lion, and several bird and fish species. The tankers cannot be approved without serious violations to the Species at Risk Act.

In addition to the oil spills, the increased tanker traffic would have significant air and climate impacts. Today, most oil tankers burn heavy fuel oil, some of the dirtiest fossil fuels on the planet. When in port, such vessels are one of the largest causes of local air pollution, and because heavy fuel oil is more carbon intensive, their consumption has a far more negative impact on the climate. The most recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change makes it very clear that we cannot continue to build projects that emit more carbon if we are to avoid the most cataclysmic impacts of climate change.

Finally, and most importantly, the Trans Mountain Pipeline does not have full consent of Coastal First Nations of the Salish Sea. As a signatory to the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Canada has dedicated itself to earning the Free, Prior, and Informed Consent of Indigenous peoples before the building of projects such as the Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion. Without the full consent of all First Nations along the pipeline route, the Canadian government does not have the moral or legal authority to build this pipeline.

I am calling on you to stop the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project. Our communities, our wildlife, and our climate cannot wait.

Sincerely,
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