VANCOUVER – Kinder Morgan has confirmed there was an oil spill this morning at the Sumas Terminal and tank farm in Abbotsford, after nearby residents phoned 911 and reported headaches and nausea from a heavy smell of gas in the air.

“Here we are in the middle of high profile public hearings about the proposed Enbridge pipeline in northern BC, and yet Kinder Morgan has been allowed to move ahead with expansion plans without public consultation,” said West. On the first day of the Enbridge public hearings, earlier this month, a leak was reported on an Enbridge gas pipeline on the Gulf of Mexico.  

“We have warned time and again that with oil pipelines there will be oil spills,” said Ben West, Healthy Communities Campaigner for the Wilderness Committee, which is one of a number of groups opposed to Kinder Morgan’s plans to expand the capacity of the Trans Mountain pipeline in order to increase exports of crude oil to Asia and other markets.

The Abbotsford terminal is part of the Kinder Morgan pipeline system which brings tar sands crude from Alberta via the Trans Mountain pipeline ending at terminals in Burnaby and Washington State. There was a spectacular oil spill in a Burnaby residential neighbourhood near the terminal back in 2007.

Today’s spill prompted nearby Auguston Traditional Elementary School to keep its students indoors all morning. Back in 2005, a spill at the same tank farm forced some local residents to relocate temporarily. “With expanded capacity will come expanded risk of spills,” said West. 

“Residents from Burnaby to Abbotsford – and everywhere along the Kinder Morgan pipeline – deserve to have full public consultation about the risks to their health and the environment.”