Trans Mountain Pipeline-
The Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain Pipeline System, or simply the Trans Mountain Pipeline, is an oil pipeline that carries crude and refined oil from Alberta to the west coast of British Columbia. It is wholly owned by the Canadian division of Kinder Morgan. This pipeline is already in use but it has just been granted an expansion. The federal government gave its approval for Kinder Morgan's $6.8-billion expansion of the pipeline. The expansion would triple the capacity of the existing pipeline and go through a number of communities along the way. The pipeline will transport diluted bitumen, called dilbit. A type of heavy crude oil, dilbit contains various toxicants, some of which are classified as Group 1 carcinogens “with no known safe threshold of exposure,” the report states. The expansion also puts into jeopardy the health of dozens of First Nations communities, 61 of which are opposed to the expansion. Completion of this expansion would increase Canadian crude oil tankers in the Salish Sea from 120 to 816 transits a year which increases probability of major oil spills. The Tsleil-Waututh Nation argues that the Kinder Morgan project would cause serious, permanent, and far-reaching impacts to the Tsleil-Waututh. The Coldwater Nation, which is one of 15 bands that together comprise the Nlaka’pamux Nation, focuses on the threat to its aquifer which is the sole source of drinking water for over 90 per cent of people on the Coldwater Reserve.
Who’s fighting this pipeline?-
