The Wilderness Committee has publicly launched a new automated system to draw attention to oil tankers in Burrard Inlet. (See TV News Story) Members of the general public are now able to sign up for “oil tanker alerts” on their cell phones.  To subscribe to receive the tanker alert text messages, simply text the word ‘Oil’ to (604) 800-9180. To follow the alerts on twitter follow twitter.com/BurrardInletOil.



This innovative service informs concerned residents when a tanker is preparing to fill up with crude oil at the Kinder Morgan Terminal in Burnaby, the site of a 2007 oil spill. There is also an associated twitter account that provides more detailed information about when the tanker is passing under the Second Narrows Bridge (the narrowest part of the inlet), when it is docked at the terminal and when it’s leaving the inlet. The service provides information about the name and size of the tankers as well as information about how to get involved in the campaign to oppose oil exports off the BC coast.

“We have designed this service to help inform members of the general public about the expansion of oil exports that has been happening quietly without anyone being properly consulted,” said Ben West, Wilderness Committee Healthy Communities Campaigner. “No longer will any tankers pass through Vancouver Harbour without anybody knowing about it,” said West.

The Keystone XL pipeline proposal has been an international news story and the Enbridge Pipeline proposal has received a lot of attention in the media, but the Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion plan has largely gone unnoticed. Kinder Morgan quietly expanded their export capacity by 50,000 barrels a day in 2008 shortly after the Burnaby oil spill. Kinder Morgan has now begun the process of moving towards a massive expansion of their pipeline and associated tanker traffic.

“The success of the campaign against the Keystone XL pipeline means there will be an even bigger push to turn the BC coast into the tar sands shipping port, and we want to make it clear that we are not going to let that happen,” said West.

“This new alert system gives local residents a sense of the sheer volume of crude oil being shipped from Vancouver, and all the risk that brings – both in terms of a potential spill but also the risks of climate change that come with an expansion of tar sands oil exports,” said West.

For more information about the Wilderness Committee tanker campaign visit WildernessCommittee.org/Tankers

Contact:

Ben West, Wilderness Committee, Healthy Communities Campaigner, 604-710-5340