The Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline is an existing pipeline which runs from Edmonton, Alberta to the Vancouver area. The existing pipeline transports 300,000 barrels of oil per day. Kinder Morgan is proposing to expand the Trans Mountain pipeline in order to increase its flow to 890,000 barrels per day!
The expansion project would add approximately 980 km of new pipeline and reactivate 193 km of existing pipeline. To support the expanded pipeline, new facilities would include 12 new pump stations, 19 new tanks added to existing storage terminals, and three new oil tanker loading docks at the Westridge Marine Terminal in Burnaby, BC. The expansion would significantly increase oil tanker traffic through Vancouver harbour and the Salish Sea from just 22 visits in 2005 to over 400.
The project would directly result in expansion of the Alberta tar sands, further setting us back on our climate commitments. A company called Teck Resources has filed for the largest-ever open pit tar sands mine in northern Alberta. The $20-billion Teck Frontier Mine would rip up huge swaths of pristine Boreal forest, destroy critical wildlife habitat, violate rights of local First Nations, unleash a flood of global warming pollution, and pollute sensitive watersheds that flow into Canada’s largest World Heritage Park. Teck Resources has signed contracts to ship oil through Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline. Their open pit mine is driving the business case for the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion.