Coast is no stranger to oil tankers

Coast is no stranger to oil tankers

By Jack Knox

Calgary Herald

April 29, 2012

As Victoria residents fuss about the idea of an expanded Kinder Morgan pipeline sending 350 oil tankers sliding past their front door every year, consider this: They already have 800 going the other way.

U.S. government statistics show 548 tankers entered Juan de Fuca Strait bound for Washington state ports in 2010. Another 252 came in bound for Canada.

Now, depending on whether you're a tanker half-full or tanker-half empty kind of person, you might find those numbers either reassuring or alarming as you consider the Kinder Morgan proposal, which would increase the number and size of vessels from Vancouver.

Reassuring in that tankers regularly pass by without turning parts of Victoria into a Greenpeace commercial. Alarming in that every extra ship ups the odds of one driving into the ditch.

There have been close calls. In November 2009, the bulk carrier Hebei Lion was blown onto a rocky reef near Mayne Island.

Washington's Ecology Department said at the time that damage to the ship's fuel tanks could have oiled islands on both sides of the border, and that a major spill could have closed shipping altogether.

"Fortunately, it was towed off the following day and no oil was spilled, but the risk was high," said a 2011 report from the Pacific States/British Columbia Oil Spill Task Force.

The task force, comprising government agencies and other players from both sides of the border, was created in 1989 in response to that year's Exxon Valdez disaster off Alaska and a smaller calamity closer to home: Two days before Christmas 1988, the tow cable connecting a tugboat to the fuel barge Nestucca snapped near Grays Harbor, Wash., dumping 875,000 litres of fuel oil into the chuck.

On the U.S. side, tens of thousands of birds died and the oil fouled the shore from northern Oregon to Dungeness Spit, right across Juan de Fuca Strait from Victoria. The gunk also scummed up Vancouver Island beaches from Sooke to Nootka Sound. Estimates of the number of dead Vancouver Island birds ranged from 3,100 to 56,000. The cleanup cost Canadian taxpayers $4.6 million.

Note that the spill was just 1/50th the size of the Exxon Valdez mess.

Also note that the oil tankers that routinely pass Victoria en route to refineries at Anacortes and Cherry Point, Wash., might carry 150 million litres of Alaska crude - almost four times as much as the Exxon Valdez spilled into Prince William Sound.

The threat isn't just from oil tankers and barges. In July 1991, the Japanese fish processor Tenyo Maru sank after colliding with the bulk carrier Tuo Hai at Swiftsure Bank off the entrance to the strait. One crew member died. Fuel oil and diesel spread all the way down to Oregon.

Obviously, that's a rarity. Just as most planes land safely, most ships arrive at port without incident.

Washington Department of Ecology statistics show that in addition to those 800 tankers, 1,663 cargo and passenger vessels entered the strait bound for the U.S. and 2,040 for Canada in 2010.

Making sure they dock safely is the key. Any sizable spill would be calamitous; spill-response plans can only mitigate the degree of disaster. That's why most of the focus is on keeping ships out of trouble in the first place.

On Vancouver Island, they're lucky to be getting a free ride from a rescue tug based in Neah Bay, Wash., right at the mouth of the strait. Between 1999 and 2010, it was deployed to help 46 ships that had lost steering or otherwise ended up in trouble, on 11 occasions taking them under tow before they drifted onto the rocks.

Rules require loaded tankers coming out of Vancouver to be guided by tugs and a couple of local coastal pilots as they negotiate the tricky waters between Saturna Island and Victoria. West of Race Rocks, they're on their own.

Right now, safety rules also dictate that only small tankers and partially loaded medium-sized ones can sail through Burrard Inlet and out Juan de Fuca Strait. That's fine if they're going to California, but the trip to Asia would require larger ships, notes the oil spill task force in discussing Kinder Morgan's proposal.

Whether the heavier loads could be carried safely in the confined waters of the Vancouver-Victoria corridor is a big, scary question.

But while considering what might be, don't forget what's already sailing past Victoria's front porch.

Jack Knox is a columnist with the Times-Colonist in Victoria.

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