Photo By WESTERN CANADA MARINE RESPONSE CORP.
The first of 43 new spill response vessels being built to support the Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion was launched last week in Prince Rupert.
It's a 26-foot-long Sentinel landing craft, built for Western Canada Marine Response Corp which is a Transport Canada-certified marine response company funded by the oil industry.
Kinder Morgan committed to investing $150 million in what's being called Canada's "largest-ever expansion of spill response personnel and equipment".
“Workboats are the backbone of a response. These support vessels deliver equipment and personnel to a response, tow boom as part of a sweep system, deploy skimmers and can assist with waste removal,” WCMRC said in a statement.
“To perform these tasks, the new Sentinel 30 is powered by twin 150 HP counter-rotating Yamaha outboards and can travel at up to 35 knots.”
The Sentinel 30 will undergo spill response trials in Prince Rupert before being moved to the new 24/7 response base in Saanich on Vancouver Island.
The Trans Mountain spill response enhancements also include six new response bases and about 135 new personnel. These new resources will be located along shipping lanes in the Salish Sea, with about 70 of the new WCMRC employees and most new vessels located at bases on Vancouver Island, according to Kinder Morgan.
All new personnel, facilities and equipment will be in place several months before the first oil tankers associated with the expansion begin calling at Burnaby’s Westridge Marine Terminal in Burrard Inlet, the company said when the enhancements were announced last June.
In Vancouver, protests over the pipeline expansion continue after the government committed to purchasing it earlier this month.
Recently about 100 people joined a rally outside Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould’s office in Vancouver, holding signs saying “No consent, no pipeline” and “Not justifiable.”.
Similar events were held in dozens of other cities, including Calgary, Regina, Toronto and Halifax.
This week protesters tested a recently-expanded court injunction which did away with a 10-minute window the original injunction had allowed for protesters to comply before arrest.
A woman holds a sign with a drawing of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s face on a snake as protesters opposed to the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline extension demonstrate outside Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould’s constituency office, in Vancouver, on Monday June 4, 2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
