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Residents hear of tar-sands oil risks
News Articles | Battle Creek Enquirer | February 28, 2011
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National environmental groups asked residents to contact their congressmen about the Enbridge Inc. oil spill at a forum Monday night.
About 55 residents attended the public meeting at Burnham Brook Community Center hosted by the National Wildlife Federation.
The meeting marked the official local release of a report, “Tar Sands Pipelines Safety Risks,” drafted by the Natural Resources Defense Council, the NWF and the Pipeline Safety Trust.
The report cites the July 25 oil spill as a warning of the dangers of shipping tar sands oil through pipelines.
It claims that tar sands oil — the type of oil that was spilled in the Kalamazoo River in Fredonia Township last year — is more likely to cause spills and is more difficult to clean up.
The latter claim, at least, was true for the Enbridge spill, said Mark Durno, an Environmental Protection Agency deputy on-scene coordinator for the spill.
“It changed the dynamics of the spill,” Durno recalled in an interview before Monday’s meeting.
The report claims that tar sands oil is thicker than conventional crude oil, and will more readily sink.
EPA officials discovered that, almost from the beginning, large quantities of oil were sinking to the bottom of the Kalamazoo River. Churning water at spots such as Ceresco Dam didn’t help matters, Durno said.
Even today, several months after the spill, submerged oil is “probably going to be our number one work action,” as workers return with the warm weather, Durno said.
The report also said tar sands oil can be harmful to pipelines because it is more acidic than other types of oil and requires higher temperatures and pressures to be transported through pipes.
Tar sands oil is a thick, sticky form of crude oil. It is so viscous (resistant to movement) that it has to be mixed with liquid natural gas to be efficiently transported through pipelines.
The oil is transported through pipelines to refineries for eventual use that includes gasoline.
Tagged with: pipeline, pipeline safety, michigan, nrdc
