Kingston Report Urges Energy Board To Go Slow On Pipeline

Jeff Green | Apr 11, 2013

A report by Cynthia Beach, the Commissioner of Sustainability and Growth with the City of Kingston, raises questions about a proposal by Enbridge to reverse the flow of crude oil in pipeline 9B, which passes through rural Kingston and Storrington District of South Frontenac.

Currently the oil flows to the west from Montreal, and Enbridge wants to start moving oil from the west to refineries in Montreal and points east.

The proposal by Enbridge, which is currently the subject of a National Energy Board (NEB) hearing process, includes increasing the flow of oil through the pipeline, which has been in place since 1976, by 25% to 300,000 barrels per day. As well, in addition to the light crude oil that has been coursing through the pipeline for 37 years, Enbridge is asking the NEB for permission to transport Diluted Bitumen from the Alberta tar sands through pipeline 9b.

In her report, Beach pointed out that there is always a statistical risk of leaks wherever there is an oil pipeline. That risk amounts to an expectation, for the Kingston/Frontenac stretch of the line, of one incident every 285 years related to pipeline corrosion, and one incident every 20 years for all reasons. The other reasons including cracking, equipment failure, material defects, environmental incidents and human impacts.

Since 1976, there have been 12 leaks and one rupture in the entire stretch of pipeline 9b between Hamilton and Montreal, none of which occurred in the section that passes through Kingston and Frontenac. The most serious incident was a rupture near the terminus at Montreal, when close to 3,000 cubic metres of oil spilled. The total spillage from all the other incidents combined is 50 cubic metres, and no lasting environmental damage is noted along the line.

However, Beach raised some potential concerns with the Enbridge plan. The first has to do with the proposal to transport diluted bitumen. While pipeline industry scientists claim the substance is no more corrosive than light crude oil there are scientists who disagree. If it is determined the bitumen is more corrosive, the potential for pipeline failure would increase.

“There continues to be sufficient conflict between the science in regard to the relative corrosivity between conventional crude oil and dil-bit [diluted bitumen] that the US Congress has commissioned an assessment of the matter by the Transportation Research Board. Clarity on this issue is expected with the conclusion on the US Transportation Research Board’s work scheduled for the end of 2013,” Cynthia Beach wrote. She recommended that the City request that the NEB wait until the study is released before deciding whether to approve Enbridge’s application.

A second concern relates to the fact that pipeline 9b has not had a “hydrostatic test”, which is a measure of the integrity of the pipe when under maximum pressure, since 1997. In her report, Cynthia Beach recommends that the City “request the NEB to consider the merits of a new hydrostatic test as a demonstration of the integrity of the line 9b pipeline.”

The report makes two other recommendations, one dealing with training for emergency responders, and the other with ensuring that Enbridge provides a $1 billion surety against potential environmental impacts in the event of a major spill.

The cleanup for an Enbridge pipeline spill on the Kalamazoo River in Michigan state cost over $765 million in the two years following the spill itself, and the cleanup is still ongoing.