Oil more risky to drinking water

Photo Courtesy Enbridge Energy
Enbridge announced last year in the United States an investment plan of $ 7 million to acquire additional hardware, such as the type of boom-floating, in order to cope with an oil spill on the water.

Anne Caroline Desplanques

Monday, 4 September 2017, 06:30

UPDATE
Monday, 4 September 2017, 06:30

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A portion of the oil flowing through the pipeline 9B Enbridge would sink to the bottom of the water in the event of a leak, which would make it much more difficult to clean and increase the risk to the drinking water of three million people.

According to information obtained by The Newspaper, the diluted bitumen from the oil sands is flowing through the line 9B, which runs through waterways are essential to the supply of drinking water in the montreal region.

The presence of the product concerned at the highest point of the environmentalists and experts from the national Centre for training in water treatment, because it poses a greater risk to the water sources and the municipal authorities are not equipped to deal with it.

“It is as if it was an oil as the others, but science has clearly demonstrated that it is not. It is necessary to have an emergency plan and equipment adapted to the diluted bitumen. The opposite is completely irresponsible, ” growls Patrick Bonin of Greenpeace.

Enbridge refuses to make public the volume or frequency of delivery of the product. “This information is confidential, because it relates to our customers “, says the spokesperson Herb Shields.

Drinking water

The diluted bitumen can be transported “at frequencies and varying quantities according to the orders received by the company,” complements the national energy Board, which explains that the pipe is designed to receive different types of oil.

“Diluted bitumen is more difficult to recover and it contaminates the water column in all its depth, so it is much more problematic than conventional oil,” warns Guy Coderre, the national Center for training in water treatment.

Located between two and four meters deep, the water intakes of the montreal region may escape an oil slick on the surface, but in the face of a pollutant flowing, they have no way of escape, explains the expert.

“There is a frivolity in the way in which the industry deals with the sources of drinking water, yet there is a very real risk,” stresses Karel Mayrand, executive director of the Foundation David Suzuki in Quebec.

Molasses flowing

The diluted bitumen, also called ” dilbit “, is in fact the tar to which is added a cocktail of solvents to make it liquid. Without this, the material could not flow in a pipeline, because it has the consistency of peanut butter.

Once the “dilbit” spill into the water, the solvents evaporate more or less quickly depending on the ambient temperature, leaving behind them a mass of black, viscous, flowing, because it is heavier than water.

This is what was documented by the National Academy of Science (NAS) in the United States by studying the behavior of the “dilbit” spilled into the river Kalamazoo, Michigan, in 2010.

The u.s. environmental protection Agency has had to require that Enbridge dredge the bottom of the Kalamazoo to remove the bitumen, two and a half years after the spill.

The cities alone in the face of a potential disaster

There is not a word on the drinking water supply of Montreal in the event of a spill, the emergency plan from Enbridge.

“There is no information on the continued production of drinking water or the distribution of bottled water, says Guy Coderre, the national Center for training in water treatment. The cities will be left to themselves, ” he predicts.

“If the distribution network of Montreal is contaminated, this is not Enbridge, that will solve the problem,” adds Karel Mayrand, executive director of the Foundation David Suzuki in Quebec.

Aware of the risks, the elected officials of the metropolitan Community of Montreal were formed on August 3, a study committee charged with ensuring the drinking water supply of the region in the event of a spill.

Enbridge ensures for its part that its staff would be to work “within two hours” in the event of an accident.

“The detection and measures to mitigate or stop the flow of spills can be taken in a few minutes,” insists the spokesperson of the company, Herb Shields.

Impotence

The company has a whole arsenal to deal with a spill, including caravans decontamination, boats, dams, mobile and different types of booms.

But all this material may be of little use in the face of the “dilbit,” said Mr. Coderre. Human intervention may in fact be impossible in the first few hours following an oil spill diluted, he said, because the evaporation of solvents contained in bitumen may pose a risk to health.

This is not to mention the risk of explosion, adds Patrick Bonin of Greenpeace. Because of this event, Enbridge plans an evacuation zone of 1.6 km around of a leak, he says.

Once the solvent evacuated, place of log booms to retain the water, as is done in the event of a spill would be of little use in the face of the ” dilbit “, added Mr. Bonin.

Into the river Kalamazoo, Michigan, contaminants passed under the booms, and followed the thread of the current across the depth of the water column.

“There was no emergency plan when it is” dilbit “, because one is simply unable to pick it up, ” sums up Mr. Mayrand.

Line 9B from yesterday to today

• 1976 construction Year
• 1998 Year of reversal of flow from the east to the west to import foreign oil
• 2015 Year of flow reversal from the west to the east to feed the refineries of Montreal in pétrolenord-american
• 639 kilometres of pipe between North Westover, Ontario and Montreal, Quebec
• 300 000 barrels of oil per day transported