The oil spill on Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline Wednesday evening near Merritt may be one of the smallest recorded in the line’s 60-year history, but it has triggered a seismic public reaction.

Where spills of a few barrels might once have generated a public yawn, this one, initially reported by the company at a mere 12 barrels, has set the Twitterverse and Facebook on fire and prompted angry “I told you so’s” from environmentalists and First Nations.

It also comes a day before Premier Christy Clark and Alberta Premier Alison Redford meet to discuss, among other things, two pipeline proposals, one of which B.C. now officially opposes.

The visceral public reaction to the pipeline leak surprises neither Nathan Lemphers, a senior policy analyst with Calgary-based Pembina Institute, a Calgary-based energy and environmental policy think-tank, nor Barry Penner, B.C.’s former environment minister. Both say recent high-profile oil spills have made the public skeptical about Enbridge’s proposed Northern Gateway pipeline and Kinder Morgan’s plan to twin its Edmonton-Vancouver line.

“I think when it comes to public opinion now, any spill is one spill too many,” Lemphers said. “The kind of conduct that took place years ago is no longer acceptable because people are much more aware, especially in B.C. where you have two major oil pipeline proposals.”

Penner, now a senior counsel with Vancouver law firm Davis LLP, which is representing a First Nations band whose traditional territory includes the leak site, said the spill comes at exactly the wrong time for proponents of pipeline expansion.

“The size of the spill — based on what we know — appears not to be large but the timing is very significant,” he said. “Issues to do with pipelines are front and centre and much of the concern expressed deals with whether they are considered safe. And with Premiers Clark and Redford due to discuss this (today), this isn’t exactly good timing.”

Lemphers believes that any spill of any size is going to continue to trigger negative public reactions simply because people are unwilling to simply accept stated assurances that everything’s fine.

“We are in a time where people expect access to spill information on a much faster basis and they have higher expectations,” he said.

The spill, which is being investigated by the National Energy Board, the Transportation Safety Board and Kinder Morgan itself, occurred along the mountainous section of the line between Hope and Kamloops. A maintenance crew following up on routine inspections that indicated there might be a problem discovered a small underground leak near the Kingsvale pumping station 20 kilometres south of Merritt.

The company immediately shut down the line, according to Kinder Morgan spokesman Andy Galarnyk. Repairs are underway and the line could be put back into service within days once the NEB gives its approval.

Galarnyk said that while the leak is small in nature, the company recognizes public sentiment about spills has changed -- especially in light of BP’s Gulf of Mexico spill and Enbridge’s spill into the Kalamazoo River in Michigan.

“I think it is a heightened sensitivity and we have to be that much more sensitive to any event, any incident that occurs,” he said. “Kinder Morgan is working hard to make sure we are doing everything we can to be proactive. Despite having an incident yesterday, we feel we are still on the right track.”

Penner’s law firm represents the Lower Nicola Indian Band, whose traditional territory includes the site of the leak. The band has asked for a meeting with Kinder Morgan president Ian Anderson. It also wants the company to establish a spill response facility staffed by trained band members nearby. Penner said the nearest emergency spill response equipment that can be deployed is in Hope and Kamloops. Galarnyk said Kinder Morgan’s aboriginal relations department will review the band’s demands.

Within hours of a public notice by the NEB and Kinder Morgan’s statement, environmentalists and First Nations had expressed anger. Gabriel George, a senior member of the Tsleil-Waututh First Nation, said this spill, as small as it is, was symptomatic of the concerns his community has expressed about Kinder Morgan’s port facilities in Burrard Inlet for more than half a century.

“This spill should be a wake-up call for all of us,” said George, the grandson of Chief Dan George. “Kinder Morgan says that there has been no impact to any water course and no threat to the public, but what about the next spill? They are proving that they can’t eliminate the threat posed by their pipeline.”

The Western Canada Wilderness Committee’s early tweet that “Kinder Morgan pipeline spill just another reminder of the dangers of pipelines and tankers” was widely re-broadcast.

That kind of concern belies the true record of spills on the Trans Mountain line, which was finished in 1953. Since 1961 there have been 78 “recorded releases” or spills along the Vancouver-Edmonton line, according to company data. Of those, half were under 30 barrels of oil in size. Wednesday’s spill was the 28th-smallest leak on the line.

Many of the incidents occurred at pumping stations, tank farms or at terminals, where they were subject to failure of moving parts or accidental release by staff. The largest recorded incident took place in 1966 when nearly 7,000 barrels of crude oil were spilled at Mile 239 in Alberta.

The 2007 accidental puncture of the line in Burnaby by a road contractor spilled nearly 1,500 barrels of synthetic crude, and a tank farm accident at the Burnaby terminal in 2009 leaked nearly 1,300 barrels of sweet crude.

Lemphers said in 2011 the federal environment commissioner raised concerns about the safety of hydrocarbon transport in Canada and found the NEB wasn’t doing a good enough job of monitoring pipeline carriers. Recently the NEB has improved, he said.

“You have a situation where the pipeline companies aren’t adhering to the law but the regulator isn’t holding the companies to account. And now, with the debate around Keystone XL (line to the U.S.), Kinder Morgan and Northern Gateway, you are having the public take a much closer look.”

Photo:  The Kinder Morgan pipeline pathway near Merritt. (CTV)