The pipeline's proposed route. Image courtesy of Banktrack.org
January 17, 2012
By John Larison
As some of you might have read in the latest issue of Fly Fisherman , Prime Minister Stephen Harper of Canada is supporting an oil industry proposal that would create a pipeline from Alberta's Tar Sands to the coast of British Columbia, bisecting hundreds of the world's most productive salmon and steelhead streams. As the recent disasters in Michigan and Yellowstone reveal, these pipelines are hardly benign. When they break--and they break often--ecosystems and the people that depend on them are devastated. My own childhood fishing friend, Liam Wood, was killed in 1999 while fly fishing when a gas pipeline ruptured upstream and flooded the river valley with flammable vapor.
The pipeline's proposed route. Image courtesy of Banktrack.org
Public testimony is being collected now online and in Kitimat and Terrace on the proposed Enbridge Pipeline. Please take a moment to submit your comments. Go to: http://gatewaypanel.review-examen.gc.ca/efile/LetterOfComment.aspx
And if you'd like to see an gorgeous and moving documentary on the proposed Enbridge Pipeline called SPOIL, visit: http://vimeo.com/19582018
And please, suggest your friends also submit their comments. Though this proposed pipeline maybe thousands of miles from your home, the next may be crossing your local watershed.
