VANCOUVER, BC -To mark World Oceans Day, the Wilderness Committee is warning against the possibility of a catastrophic oil spill in Vancouver's harbour.

"Most people are totally unaware of it, but every week two tankers carrying three times more crude oil than what was spilled by the Exxon Valdez pass through the narrows of Burrard Inlet, right past Stanley Park," said Ben West, Wilderness Committee Campaigner and a member of Tanker Free BC. "It's a disaster waiting to happen, and the scariest thing is that there are plans to increase six-fold the amount of crude exported through Vancouver."

Kinder Morgan, the US-based multinational corporation, has submitted an application to the National Energy Board of Canada to expand its Trans Mountain pipeline which brings crude oil from the Alberta tar sands to Burnaby. Their plans include shipping up to six times more unrefined, crude oil from Vancouver.

"Vancouver is rapidly becoming the key point of export for tar sands crude oil on the west coast of North America," said West. "We are opposed to this both because of what this means for the fight against climate change and because of the threat it poses to our Pacific coast."

The Wilderness Committee and Tanker Free BC will be a holding a special event Thursday, June 9, 'From the Gulf Coast to English Bay: Protecting our Oceans from Big Oil', starting at 7pm at the new W2 Media Cafe (#250-111 W. Hastings).

The event will feature Ben West and US-based author and activist Antonia Juhasz, a leading expert on the oil industry worldwide. This will be the Vancouver launch of her latest book, Black Tide: The Devastating Impact of the Gulf Oil Spill, which presents a definitive account of last year's BP oil spill and its disastrous aftermath.

"BP and the other oil companies drilling in the Gulf of Mexico assured governments and the public that their drilling techniques were 'safe', and now today we are hearing from the oil industry that these oil tankers in Burrard Inlet are safe," said West. "So it's important for us here to be vigilant, and to consider the disaster in the Gulf when thinking about the massive increase in oil exports going through Vancouver's harbour," said West. "

Contact:

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