Our work in this area is focused on mitigating the risk of a large oil spill from commercial shipping activities in the Skeena estuary near Prince Rupert. Its port is currently Canada’s fourth largest commercial port, with significant expansion planned in the next five years. This growth includes the development of a major petroleum product terminal, Vopak, to handle propane, methanol, and diesel. We insist anchorage related risk be assessed and mitigation like permanent mooring buoys be installed as needed.

The port's anchorages are prone to anchor-dragging incidents reported by Transport Canada as "risk of grounding incidents". Our concern is that a risk of grounding incident may result in an accident and fuel spill, as most of the anchorages have nearby grounding hazards. Mitigating anchor drags would lessen the risk of a spill from container ships and bulk carriers which carry 1.5-7 million liters of bunker and diesel oil in their fuel tanks. It would also, very importantly, lessen the risk of a petroleum product tanker spill.

See why we are concerned:

 

Luanne Roth leads this project. Please contact her for more information.