An oil spill from a stranded cargo ship off New Zealand is the country’s worst environmental disaster in decades, the government says.

Officials say 350 tonnes of oil may have leaked from the 775ft (236m) Rena, which ran aground on the Astrolabe Reef off the port of Tauranga on Wednesday.

Bad weather has halted work to pump oil off the ship.

Environment Minister Nick Smith said the situation was going to get “significantly worse” in coming days.
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People are angry that this could have happened on our doorstep”

Jim Kohu Local resident

“This event has come to a stage where it is New Zealand’s most significant maritime environmental disaster,” he told a news briefing in Tauranga.

Mr Smith said the rate at which oil was gushing out of the ship had increased “fivefold” since it ran aground.

“The government is determined to throw everything possible at minimising the environmental harm of what is now clear to be New Zealand’s worst environmental disaster in many decades”

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-15251319

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gXaYZVGw44&feature=player_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zlnri_scklA&feature=player_embedded

Spills and violations

Using data from Enbridge’s own reports, the Polaris Institute calculated that 804 spills occurred on Enbridge pipelines between 1999 and 2010. These spills released approximately 168,645 barrels (26,812.4 m3) of hydrocarbons into the environment.[8]

On July 4, 2002 an Enbridge pipeline ruptured in a marsh near the town of Cohasset, Minnesota in Itasca County, spilling 6,000 barrels (950 m3) of crude oil. In an attempt to keep the oil from contaminating the Mississippi River, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources set a controlled burn that lasted for 1 day and created a smoke plume about 1-mile (1.6 km) high and 5 miles (8.0 km) long.[9]

In 2006, there were 67 reportable spills totaling 5,663 barrels (900.3 m3) on Enbridge’s energy and transportation and distribution system; in 2007, there were 65 reportable spills totaling 13,777 barrels (2,190.4 m3) [10]

On March 18, 2006, approximately 613 barrels (97.5 m3) of crude oil were released when a pump failed at Enbridge’s Willmar terminal in Saskatchewan.[11] According to Enbridge, roughly half the oil was recovered, the remainder contributing to ‘off-site’ impacts.

On January 1, 2007 an Enbridge pipeline that runs from Superior, Wisconsin to near Whitewater, Wisconsin cracked open and spilled ~50,000 US gallons (190 m3) of crude oil onto farmland and into a drainage ditch.[12] The same pipeline was struck by construction crews on February 2, 2007, in Rusk County, Wisconsin, spilling ~126,000 US gallons (480 m3) of crude. Some of the oil filled a hole more than 20 feet (6.1 m) deep and was reported to have contaminated the local water table.[13]

In April 2007, roughly 6,227 barrels (990.0 m3) of crude oil spilled into a field downstream of an Enbridge pumping station near Glenavon, Saskatchewan. Long-term site remediation is being attempted to bring the site to “as close as possible to its original condition”.[11]

In 2009, Enbridge Energy Partners, a US affiliate of Enbridge Inc., agreed to pay $1.1 million to settle a lawsuit brought against the company by the state of Wisconsin for 545 environmental violations.[14] In a news release from Wisconsin’s Department of Justice, Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen said “…the incidents of violation were numerous and widespread, and resulted in impacts to the streams and wetlands throughout the various watersheds.”[15] The violations were incurred while building portions of the company’s Southern Access pipeline, a ~$2.1 billion project to transport crude from the oil sands region in Alberta to Chicago.

In January 2009 an Enbridge pipeline leaked about 4,000 barrels (640 m3) of oil southeast of Fort McMurray at the company’s Cheecham Terminal tank farm. It was reported in the Edmonton Journal that most of the spilled oil was contained within berms, but that about 1% of the oil, about 40 barrels (6.4 m3), sprayed into the air and coated nearby snow and trees.[16]

April 2010 an Enbridge pipeline ruptured spilling more than 1500 litres of oil in Virden, Manitoba, which leaked into the Boghill Creek which eventually connects to the Assiniboine River.[17]

July 2010, a leaking pipeline spilled an estimated 843,444 US gallons (3,192.78 m3) of crude oil into Talmadge Creek leading to the Kalamazoo River in southwest Michigan on Monday, July 26.[18][19]

On September 9, 2010, a rupture on Enbridge’s Line 6A pipeline near Romeoville, Illinois released an estimate 6,100 barrels (970 m3) of oil into the surrounding area.[

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enbridge

577,The Unluckiest Number,Ten years out./ The Enbridge pipeline disaster
The 10 year anniversary next month of the Bengal Lion Star tragedy and I had to come to ground zero to see for myself, perhaps it was a mistake to come here, from what I have seen i`m way too angry to cry and too sad for fury, in fact I almost have that peaceful easy feeling.

How I miss my dad`s analytical explanation and mom`s hope springs eternal talks, yet I fear that neither parent could explain away this tragedy, 10 years later, 10 years of black death extending it`s reach.

Looking around by boat off Banks island, one mile from ground zero the feeling is of the surreal, trees are still green but any ocean life or bird activity is eerily quiet, no salmon fry swimming , no squawking gulls just silence, for tens of miles in every direction the great kelp forests are gone, who gave us permission to gamble and lose what we didn`t own and what we could never replace, Fish lake was a horrid environmental mistake, imagine deliberately destroying a huge natural watershed for trinkets of gold, thousands of dead migrating birds, a poisonous lake devoid of life, how many species of frogs, insects still get near or in the lake only to perish or leave half dead, but as horrible as the deliberate execution of Fish lake was the scale of the Bengal Lion Star oil spill off Banks island in Hecate Strait is beyond compare, how is it that my only terms of reference in attempting to describe this site is that of dead zones, in a way its very peaceful, no eternal battle for life here, those days are long gone.

Only if I could turn back the clock, why did it happen, the Bengal Lion Star should not have went out, a deep pacific low moving in, was the Captain pressured to leave, why why why, even with two large commercial tug boats assisting wasn`t going to stop the wreck, maybe if there were extra support tugs who knows but when lead tug boat Kitimat queen capsized in heavy seas nothing was going to stop the massive oil carrier from grounding on White jagged rocks that stormy (March 14, 2016) night, 30 – 40 ft high waves capped with fury pounded the Bengal Lion Star on unforgiving rocks, section after section burst like watermelons, spewing millions of gallons of tar sand oil, the 3rd largest oil spill in the world, maybe if the oil containment teams had gotten out here sooner but with storm force winds blowing for 2 days along with extreme high – low tides, my god, oil sprayed the shore line high on exposed rocks and layered thick into the lowest tidal zones, mountains of Alberta crude flowing in deep water, who could imagine the oil would have spread 50 miles in different directions over 2 days, coves, bays, narrow channels coated in black death, as far as I can look in any direction this paradise is dead, who knows what the bird count will ultimately be, millions of direct bird deaths with millions more that died in subsequent migrations, birds all along the coast found dead, birds with clear signs of contact with heavy oil, the engine in this migration route blasted with syncrude, indeed, the scale of the Bengal Lion Star oil spill can`t be measured in millions of oiled birds or the 40 distinct salmon runs that were decimated and or all of BC`a wild salmon teetering on extinction, the sea lions, otters, coastal bears, eagles, ferrets, no salmon spawns led one extinction into another, we broke nature`s bond, too many dead for one`s heart to count, oil stained carcasses feed other animals that ultimately die and black oil`s death grip reaches on and on, only with time, generational time, perhaps millenia before this area recovers, can it recover, and for what, to spill another tanker of crude.

I don`t what is harder to take, the fragile existence of a few northern runs of salmon and southern Sockeye, it`s almost like the cycle of life has been thrown out, this large swath of nature, thousands of square miles destroyed forever, well at least for my lifetime, perhaps 6 or 7 generations before this area will become fertile again but with continued oil tanker traffic when will black death strike again, even if the shell fish recover, even if herring spawns again, the Orca will never be seen again, the birthing females were first to die then the small adolescent Orca perished, 2 adult males are all that is left of the species, maybe mankind should have figured out how to start a new Orca pod before destroying the only one we had, we can take life away in a moment for all time, why didn`t we learn from the Valdez disaster, there is no going back, First Nations have mourned, the northern and island tourism industry has been decimated, maybe I should have fought harder against the National review 15 years ago, 10 years out from the disaster and Hecate Strait still lay mortally wounded, you can still smell crude oil, I can only think of Charlton Heston`s Planet of the Apes movie when he sees New York`s Statue of Liberty and realizes that it was mankind himself that burned mother nature, this area is no longer worth fighting for, top scientists are mostly in agreement that outside of decades of time there is nothing on scale that can be done to remediate the damage.

It appears the only ones left fighting about the Bengal Lion Star are the litigants, where have we seen this picture before, the Valdez law suit still lingers unpaid(40 years later), the Liberian registered Bengal Lion Star oil tanker had but minimum insurance, $200 million dollars yet the insurance has been contested, Bengal Lion Star hadn`t paid premiums in 2 years, Honshu commercial carrier insurance company have claimed bankruptcy, between the Province and Ottawa more than $4.9 billion has been spent on clean-up and species mitigation, First Nations, affected business`s and local town`s folk have law suits filed worth more than $10 billion dollars, everyone sueing and litigating for compensation on something no one can return, Enbridge pipeline inc washes their hands of any responsibility, Shell, Exxon Mobile and the Chinese petroleum company are all pointing fingers at each other, owners of the Bengal Lion Star blame the escort tug company, tug company blames act of god and file for bankruptcy, how long will these trials go on and who will ultimately pay, what price, what price to return nature to the way it was, all this pain to secure dirty Alberta syncrude to China, oil use falls for the last 7 years, a dying product needing desperate tyrants, we sold out nature on British Columbian`s wild west coast for a handful of pesos, how can ancient dregs of plants take so much away from present and future life cycles, I can`t shed tears anymore, my life, my personal battles, millions of wasted words warning of potential harm or should I say risk management, I `m too old to repeat the warnings and too tired to muster passion, the battle for Haida Gwaii is over.

Despite the First Nation`s blockade attempting to stop the very first oil tanker, 8 First Nations elders gave their life that day, not enough pressure to stop the Vessel, Oil tanker Shell diamond and it`s Canadian naval escort, dugout canoe versus high-speed frigate, symbolic but futile, the time to stop Enbridge was before it started, certainly native voices on opening day weren`t going to stop it, you can`t stop $4billion dollars spent, never the less January 13/2014 that was first super tanker to leave Kitimat, thousands of small protest vessels, even Greenpeace and Suzuki foundation concentrated efforts couldn`t stop the Federal Conservatives and the Campbell Liberal administration from rubber stamping this project from the git-go, proceeding at full speed, no matter how much evidence anti pipeline opponents, scientists, biologist, enviro`s put forward they were all but ignored, why didn`t the NDP government stop the completion of Enbridge after they were elected in 2013, was the fix in, too much money invested to stop, too big to fail, needed economic growth, jobs jobs jobs, yes I heard everyone of those excuses justifying the completion of Enbridge, what jobs, imported foreign workers building the pipeline and 12 permanent after construction jobs, was it worth it.

Madness, I knew something really big would happen, not the 5000 barrels that spilt into the Skeena river, not the 50,000 barrels dumped at the port of Kitimat but something epic, mathematician’s also knew it was coming, not if a big spill would happen but when a spill would happen, I can still hear Gordon Campbell, Christy Clark talk about risk management, the best experts in the world say we can manage the risk, how come no one asked how do we manage armageddon, how do we clean up, how do we create more Orca, how do you bring back thousands of square miles from the dead, I wonder what Gordon Campbell would say, ex premier Adrian Dix stated regrets that the NDP didn`t do more to stop Enbridge, Gordon Campbell is long since dead, yes Gordon Muir Campbell I pass blame on to you and your complicit Cabinet, your legacy, Enbridge, bankrupt utilities, a dismal health care system, a dead central coast and slow dying life cycle, well, no one is listening to me, not the Governing federal Conservatives, not Premier Gordon Coons of the newly elected Refederation party, no, no one wants to listen to the left wing, after the BC Liberal led economic collapse, the seeds of P3s, IPPs and insider deals dominated, it didn`t matter who was Government so many bad deals were signed, how many can the court overturn, the extent of the economic damage that came to fruition, what happened, like the Spanish flu in 1919 that killed millions, no one talks about the harm Gordon Campbell`s corporate Government inflicted upon us, the extent of one way contracts that ate up every Provincial dollar and more, I can`t help but think back to our 2010 Olympics, the pride, the I am Canadian attitude, Super Natural British Columbia but just a few short years after the closing ceremonies we have poisoned interior lakes, lost countless wild salmon runs to fish farms and now the third largest oil spill in the world, a death blow to our BC Coast, a massive spill in our migration engine.

Just picture heaven covered in oil, and what hurts even more, the people of BC don`t seem to care anymore, in the latest public opinion poll by Ipsos Reid job creation and big industry are more important than the environment, 67% for jobs and 16% say protect the environment, it`s times like this when I stare across at Mc Caully island or look into Norway inlet, smell the oil, I see the end of the world being played out, there is no shoulder of comfort to lean on, no soothing hugs that can squelch my silent anger, 576 successful departures from Kitimat, 576 loaded oil tankers that safely managed the inside passage, risk management, reward versus risk, despite 5 years of cruise ships not plying the inside passage, despite the loss to tourism, despite a sterile ocean desert, despite the tiniest of recoveries on the outer edges of the spill zone, despite of everything tanker traffic is predicted to triple over the next 3 years, an insatiable Asian appetite for oil and now that paradise is lost there is nothing left to fight for and no reason to stop, perhaps other edens can be spared.

Number 577, no tears of anger, no screams of silence, nothing but “That peaceful easy feeling.”

http://powellriverpersuader.blogspot.com/2010/04/577the-unluckiest-numberten-years-out.html

The enviro-spammer strikes again.

You tube videos and a complete work of fiction from the powellriverpursuader? Wow, you are really becoming credible.

http://powellriverpersuader.blogspot.com/2009/11/it-cant-happen-again-can-it.html

$700 million Enbridge spending to clean up Kalamazoo oil spill:

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/spills+costly+companies+environment+seem+inevitable+despite+technology/5956573/story.html

Interceptor, Johnny`s hero..

Stumps, cement blocks, rubber tires and popsicle sticks.

Please keep it up, Grant G and you might get banned from this site again.

http://powellriverpersuader.blogspot.com/2012/01/enbridge-will-kill-british-columbia.html

I don’t mind having a person present the other side of things in the chat. That will be really important as the spin machines will be out for both sides. Facts are facts. Enbridge has a lot of major oil spills. The questions we should be asking are:

a) Is this pipeline absolutely necessary?
b) If yes, then is Enbridge the ideal company to monitor this pipeline?
c) What benefit is it for british columbians?

Mind you the length of some of these posts make it so I don’t read most of it. If you wish to present your opinion, please try to keep it concise for optimal effect.

More spam from criminalmind’s mom’s basement.

http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2012/01/09/ShamDemocracy/

We may need oil, and need a pipeline – but this just isn’t hte place to put it – and this isn’t NIMBY – Kitimat just isn’t the harbour for this.

Giving Harper a majority has now come back to haunt us.
Hypocritical, carbon tax in BC yet a gov’t in favour pipeline with a product that will only add to green house gases and eviromental disasters.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gXaYZVGw44&feature=player_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zlnri_scklA&feature=player_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=fvwp&v=dOKmeV-sBEU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxrC7akwGsI&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9N-VR7QOQc&feature=related

Well if the enviro-spammer has proven one thing, the moderators of this site are asleep at the switch.

Hi Stumpy

Questions that should be asked “WHO PROFITS THE MOST FROM THIS PIPELINE.
1 Alberta saves money getting their oil to market less trucking.Alberta does not pay the taxes BC does.

2 Who will pay for the cleanup when the big spill happens it won’t be Endbridge. They will pay a token amount, and then walk away. Do you really believe they cleaned up the gulf of Mexico. There’s a 18 mile deep oil spill out there floating around.All cleanup money should be paid by Alberta out of their transfer payments.
3 For every barrel that goes through that pipe there should be a tax of 4.00 dollars that go directly into BC health care education,poverty etc! and that should come out of the profits over and above any other money we are paid.

Endbridge is a Canadian company in name only they are considered to be a globle company. Money you make here remains here you pay the tax rate here.Do you think you will get a cheaper rate at the pumps because of this pipeline not likely.