Environmental activists calling themselves Citizens’ Response Unit for Decontaminating our Environment (CRUDE) interrupted work at a large Enbridge Line 9 worksite in G. Ross Lord Dam and Park near Dufferin and Finch at sunrise this morning.
The action is one of several in recent days as Enbridge has begun so-called integrity digs to uncover and repair suspected weak points along the Sarnia to Montreal stretch of the line. The company received approval last March to ship Alberta crude through the pipe to refineries in the east.
Designed in the mid-1970s to transport natural gas, activists argue the line cannot withstand the pressure associated with transporting heated diluted bitumen.
Umair Muhammed, a media spokesperson for CRUDE, points out that a similar pipeline, Enbridge’s Line 6B in Michigan, resulted in disaster in 2010, spilling huge amounts of diluted bitumen into the Kalamazoo river.
The integrity dig at G. Ross Lord Dam and Park reveals the pipeline runs extremely close to people’s homes. The exposed section of pipe looks like it’s in rough condition.
Not withstanding a legal appeal of the NEB decision by the Chippewas of the Thames First Nation, Enbridge work crews have been racing to finish the project and begin pumping 300,000 barrels of tar sands crude per day through the pipe by early 2015.
Police informed Rev. Maggie Helwig, the police liaison for the group here at G. Ross Lord, that the demonstrators are trespassing and may face arrest.
On Sunday, five activists were arrested after a five-day work interruption of a Line 9 safety valve installation on the west side of the Thames River in corn fields near Woodstock.
Activist Kaleigh McGregor-Bales tells me: “We’ve asked for more folks in Toronto to come out and help us with the work stoppage for the entire work day.”
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