Gord Johnston’s tranquil life along the Red Deer River in central Alberta was shattered Thursday night as the nauseating scent of crude oil hung in the air and a coffee-coloured liquid lapped the banks near his home.
He reported the oil leak and, within two hours, a helicopter dispatched by a local oil company landed on his 57-acre property near Sundre, Alta., to fly him over the devastating scene. Mr. Johnston, who works in the oil patch, could see oil “boiling up” in the river at the site of a pipeline crossing.
By Friday morning, the situation had worsened. Oil clotted one of the province’s most crucial waterways and soaked nearby wetlands. He found a dead fish coated with oil and brought a tar-covered baby beaver to a wildlife refuge.
“My place is destroyed,” Mr. Johnston said, as he prepared to abandon his home and later head for a hospital to be treated for exposure to the fumes. “My whole life’s work is gone. I’ve pretty well lost it all here.”
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Loretta Leonhardt, who owns property where the latest spill occurred, said she is concerned. “We all love the oil industry in Alberta, but I think they’ve been really lax on what they’ve been doing for the environment,” she said. “And I think it’s time they’re called to task on some of this stuff.”
It's all part of the natural environment of Alberta anyways, just returning home.
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Be wary be very wary of Ostentatious Grandiose Lambaster.
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I see the usual suspects dancing with glee in this thread pointing righteous fingers at Alberta.
All while owning and driving cars thanks to oil, using transit thanks to oil, flying in aircraft thanks to oil, owning thousands of items made of plastic, some of it in their Macs thanks to oil, consuming electricity from turbines or generators thanks to oil. The list goes on and we all benefit, but it's those hypocrites who are the only ones revelling in this spill.
Spills happen. And they happen a very tiny fraction of the time. Check the spills rate against miles of pipeline worldwide and it is tiny indeed. Expecting any less is like expecting there to be no car crashes, no plane crashes, no sunken ships, no ill humans and that list too goes on.
Now we return you to the gleeful hypocrite thread.
I see the usual suspects dancing with glee in this thread pointing righteous fingers at Alberta.
I assure you, Don, that I am not dancing with glee. This is a serious environmental issue. It's not just a pipeline spill, it's a pipeline spill into a tributary of the Red Deer River, which is of major concern:
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By Friday morning, the situation had worsened. Oil clotted one of the province’s most crucial waterways and soaked nearby wetlands.
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...160,000 to 480,000 litres, has leaked. About 90 workers were erecting booms in Lake Gleniffer, some 40 kilometres downstream, in an bid to prevent an oil slick from reaching Red Deer, Alberta’s third-largest city, which draws its water from the river.
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unlike previous incidents, this spill isn’t in a remote location
What I find amazing and disturbing is the blasé nature exhibited by some people to this incident:
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"I was going to go fishing but they said, 'No, you're not allowed,' " he said as huddled with his friends underneath a tarp at his campsite near the Gleniffer reservoir.
"You are not allowed to go near the water because it (oil) is washing up on shore. I hope it just passes by in a week or two." (emphasis added)
This spill is not as large, though, as last year's disaster with a pipeline owned by the same company:
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In April of last year a company pipeline in northwestern Alberta ruptured, leaking more than 4.5 million litres of oil.
I assure you, Don, that I am not dancing with glee. This is a serious environmental issue. It's not just a pipeline spill, it's a pipeline spill into a tributary of the Red Deer River, which is of major concern
I know that Mark, you're not one of the usual suspects.
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