Kinder Morgan training exercise at Pioneer Park scrutinized by pipeline opponents

By MICHELE YOUNG and MIKE YOUDS

Kinder Morgan’s oil-spill drill in Pioneer Park was watched closely today (Wednesday) not just by fire and police staff, but also by a Kamloops environmentalist and several protesting aboriginal people.

Company western region director Rob Hadden said the training exercise involved stretching an oil-containment boom across the South Thompson River that would direct any spilled oil toward a point at the beach.

No oil was used in the exercise that included about 50 staff from Kinder Morgan, Kamloops Fire Rescue, RCMP and Interior Health. Kinder Morgan holds about 15 training exercises a year in various locations.

“Nothing’s going to be recovered but we’ll see how it all would work,” Hadden said.

“Leaks could happen anywhere. . . . Any leak is serious and we take it very seriously.”

Kinder Morgan has 1,100 kilometres of pipeline to monitor between Edmonton and the Lower Mainland. The company is applying to twin its Trans Mountain pipeline, which has raised concern among some environmentalists and First Nations.

One of those concerned environmentalists was Tony Brummel, who turned up to videotape Wednesday’s exercise.

The pipeline is used to ship refined and crude oil, the latter including diluted bitumen. Brummel said if bitumen leaks into a flowing river, it would cool, become denser and loser buoyancy. It could become laden with silt and eventually sink, being pushed along the river bottom by the current.

“Nobody can guarantee there won’t be a break. In fact, all pipelines break,” he said.

“They’re telling the public this oil is going to float. . . . This is largely an exercise in futility. This is a public relations exercise.”

Hadden said all oil products shipped via the pipeline are lighter than water, including diluted bitumen, so they all float. Diluted bitumen does have the potential to eventually sink, depending on the circumstances, he said.

Kinder Morgan continually looks at up-to-date products and equipment for recovering and cleaning up spills, said Hadden.

The company jumps on a leak as soon as it’s discovered, and if it’s in water, all effort is made to mop it up as quickly as possible, he said.

“Our goal is to get ahead of the oil,” he said.

“Our experience has been that the oil hasn’t sunk. We’ve never had to clean oil of the bottom.”

A small group of Secwepemc protesters confronted the start of the drill.

“Get off our land,” Miranda Secwepemc shouted from a grassy knoll to workers who were setting up equipment on the beach. “This is Secwepemc territory. We don’t want your pipeline.”

Secwepemc (her real name) said there is widespread opposition among Secwepemc First Nations to Kinder Morgan’s proposed pipeline expansion. Their objection is based upon the matriarchal tradition, in which women are “the true title holders,” she said.

“We say no, no to Kinder Morgan, the people collectively. We, the women, make these decisions, not the men.”