Province Announces Plan to Improve Spill Response
Victoria, B.C.-The Province of B.C. has announced moves to make land based hazardous material spill response “World Class”.
Provincial Minister of the Enrvironment Mary Polak says the current response is “Quite simply outdated. Our experience with spills and near misses, shows the Province is not prepared for a major spill.”
She says the recent spill in English Bay shows there “is a ways to go when it comes to marine spills”.
The action being taken on the land based spill response. following two years of discussions with stakeholders, B.C. will put in place new requirements to handle any land based spill “No matter what hazardous substance is spilled, no matter the source of the spill, BC will have world leading standards in place” says Minister Polak.
* A provincially certified, industry-funded Preparedness and Response Organization (PRO) to ensure there are trained people are ready to immediately respond to any spill, with appropriate equipment and in a co-ordinated way.
* New legislative and regulatory requirements for spill preparedness, response and recovery.
* Geographically based planning and response that will see active participation by First Nations, first responders and local communities.
As part of a world-leading land-based spill system B.C. will also work with industry around new industry funding options to ensure those who present a spill risk assume their full share of the costs. “This is above and beyond the polluter pay principle that is already in place” says Polak “Polluters have been and will continue being responsible for paying for clean up costs.”
Marine spills fall under Federal jurisdiction, but Polak says the new regime will also help with response co-ordination and minimize potential impacts to shorelines without delay because land based spills could eventually impact the marine environment.
The new regime, including detailed regulations, is expected to be in place beginning in 2017 with legislation to be introduced in the Spring of 2016.
Comments
if the government can’t respond to a small minor spill in English Bay, how are we supposed to believe they can handle a major one.
We could advertise that we have “world class spill response” all day long, but a corporation such as CN or Imperial metals (for instance) can still get away with horrendous enviro spills and stay in business. The taxpayers remain on the hook for the clean up, these corps either refuse to pay the bill ( or deny the incident happened whilst the front page of the news paper clearly shows the river on fire) and continue business as usual. I think before anymore enviro-safety horn tooting occurs, maybe the govt should deal with recent history and the blatent cover ups and b.s that is making us all question the future of our once beautiful/super natural BC. I want future generations to have at least a handfull of waterways that one can drink from/swim in, without worrying about contamination. With the present direction, it will not be realistic. Sorry mother earth, human kind is going to kill you (100+ yrs of industrial development is my proof).
I agree with watchdog’s comment. One of the worst mining disasters in the world occurs in our backyard, and this province’s response was world classless!!!
http: //globalnews.ca/news/1498222/mount-polley-mine-tailings-pond-breach-is-one-of-the-worst-in-the-world-experts/
Virtually no environmental remediation has occurred to date, and Imperial Metals, a big contributer to the BC Liberal Party campaign fund, will likely be up and operating in a few short months.
This announcement that BC will have a plan to improve oil spill response rings hollow. Hmmm… has Enbridge and Trans Canada agreed to increase their donations to the BC Liberal Party one would wonder? Of course we will never know, because any evidence is probably being deleted / shreaded as we speak.
According to your logic “watchdog”.
If a company has a horrendous environmental incident.
They should go out of business.
So the taxpayer will have to pay everything.
I believe the Mt.Polley incident which is the mine owned by
Imperial Metals. The clean-up was done and paid for by the company.
Under government supervision and to the current standards required.
Yes, it will not be as it was before.
But you would be surprised at what mother nature can do.
Given time.
We do have a world class response…it rates at the bottom but I am sure crusty thinks it’s world class.
The problem the gov has is buying all the equipement needed and having viable storage areas. Also with this they will need to train a bunch of people to the top level in incident commanding. None of this happens over night. I am sure the gov will use the famous lingo like.. Ongoing, continuing to improve, working with “fill in name” etc.
A ways to go when it comes to marine spills.. Understatement of the year ..almost like she is downplaying what happened.. The response time was horrible, communication worse.. What did Clark do..blamed the federal gov.. She continues to be useless.
Besides our prov gov who says we have a world class land spill response ? No where I can find. Have we had any land based spill response to any issue to prove we are world class? Nope.. Unless they are talking about spilling a 45 gal drum of diesel..lol
Many fired depts have hazmat trained responders.. Maybe that’s what the gov is claiming to be it..
Hey Christy, does this “world class” oil spill response include the use private companies, owned by oil companies, so they can make money off the cleanup?
www. pressprogress.ca/en/post/vancouver-oil-spill-creates-job-clean-company-owned-oil-companies
Copy and paste the link to your address bar, then delete the space between the www. and the p
The action being taken on the land based spill response. following two years of discussions with stakeholders, she said.
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“stakeholders” a common cliche the government and government officials like to use, a substitution word for taxpayer.
Opps there goes Sage again using calamity CBC as a reference.
No remediation to date? Just what do you expect in what luckily has turned into mainly a non event that is why no more headlines from calamity CBC.
Worst in the world, what and ignoring China, India, Russia just for starters. Hey you don’t see Fonda or Young prancing around those areas, nope not a chance. Wonder why? Buzz into Canada drop a few words and bail back to a lifestyle we cant even imagine while telling us how naughty we are.
No remediation to date? Just what do you expect in what luckily has turned into mainly a non event that is why no more headlines from calamity.
seamutt- Do you actually think that anyone would believe what you just posted?
Oops, there goes Sage again!
You bitch about an inadequate response and now you whine about whether this “world class” oil spill response includes the use private companies, owned by oil companies, so they can make money off the cleanup?
What should it matter, as long as we are getting a “world class” oil spill response?
Sophie, I’m kinda, sorta getting the feeling that you are one of those kind of people who are never satisfied with anything, about anything or because of anything!
Thankfully, when the Conservatives, led by our Prime Minister Stephen Harper win the next election, you will have 4 more years to whine and complain about them!
Why on earth do you live in BC, and Canada! There are jets leaving Canada every day, flying all over the world! Perhaps you might want to look into buying a ticket. One of the jets might even have David Suzuki onboard, that is if he hasn’t chartered a private jet! Feel free to leave the country with him!
“Logical One” where in my post did I say that a company should have to go out of business?? They are the one’s responsible for their actions, and therefore need to own the consequences. IF tests had shown (or ever do show) that significant heavy metals escaped during the breach, then Imp Metals could be in trouble as it was reported that their enviro insurance may not be adequate enough to cover additional costs. If that were to be the case, then we the taxpayer will most likely have to foot the bill.
As for your “logic” any guess on how long mother nature will take to clean up the world’s largest natural fresh water fjord?? I want YOUR opinion on how many generations it will take before it is truly safe to drink that water.
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