Advertisement

News

Tar sands crude set to flow through Toronto

With Alberta crude set to flow through north Toronto via Enbridge’s Line 9 as early as next week, a short video that warns of the risks of a giant tar sands oil spill “right beneath our feet” was released Thursday, May 28.

The video was made by activist Rosemary Frei and Harrison Astroff who are neigbours on a street just south of where Line 9 cuts through the Hydro corridor in North York. The somewhat campy video ends on a deadly serious message on the dangers of a potential spill by reminding viewers that Line 9 will be shipping tar sands bitumen mixed with highly-volatile chemicals and potentially explosive fracked Bakken oil and all of it at very high pressure.

Enbridge has been working to convert the 40-year-old pipeline into one that will transport diluted bitumen from the tar sands. Up to 300,000 barrels a day may soon be coursing through Toronto on its way from Sarnia to Montreal.

Enbridge expects to begin shipping the Albertan crude through the pipe any time now notwithstanding Toronto City Council passed a motion http://app.toronto.ca/tmmis/viewAgendaItemHistory.do?item=2015.MM5.15 last month calling on the company to install emergency shut off valves on either side of water-crossings in the city. The company is also being taken to court by the Chippewas of the Thames for its failure to consult some 18 First Nations communities along the pipeline route.

At National Energy Board hearings into the project, environmental activists raised the spectre of a possible repeat of the eco-disaster caused by the rupture of Enbridge’s Line 6B in Kalamazoo, Michigan, in 2010.

More information at NoLine9.com.

news@nowtoronto.com | @nowtoronto

Advertisement

Exclusive content and events straight to your inbox

Subscribe to our Newsletter

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

By signing up, I agree to receive emails from Now Toronto and to the Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions.

Recently Posted