Oil Spill off Newfoundland

UPDATE 2: The CBC has a detailed report on what happened.

It looks like a 2nd oil spill that occured yesterday spilled about 1000 litre of oil into the sea. The rigs have all been shut down in that field while the investigation continues.

This has also heightened the debate on whether to lift the moratorium on Oil and Gas exploration off the West Coast of Canada.

The last I heard, most people were against lifting the ban. Coastal Aboriginal groups have been among the most vocal opposition to the proposition. I’m mostly in favor of the moratorium. But a part of me wonders why.

The main concerns against lifting the moratorium are of course environmental… but perhaps if there were some guarantees made like:

For examples. oil companies should have to give significant resources to the fishing industry not only to help mitigate the negative effects, but to in fact GROW the salmon stocks on the west coast.

Also, because we know that oil is a finite resource… companies wanting to develop off the West Coast should fund real projects looking for real alternatives to oil in the future. Not only would this be good for the development of alternate power sources, but it would give them a “way out” of the oil patch once it does dry up.

There are a number of creative “conditions” that should and could be rigorously enforced to ensure that the oil industry doesn’t spoil BCs’ precious and beautiful coastal… and in fact works to enhance it.

There has been an oil spill off the south coast of Newfoundland and Labrador. Apparently on Sunday morning.
UPDATE:

For Comparison… this spill was approximately 1000 barrels worth. The Exxon Valdez spill was 250,000 barrels! So we’re talking a fraction of that spill.. but any spill is bad. 3 ships are now on scene ready to start cleaning it up, they’re just waiting for the weather to subside. The Coast Guard says that probably only 25% of the spill will be able to be recovered though. No word on if it will hit land.

It looks as though it was about 170,000 liters of crude oil (about 1000 barrels), pumped directly into the ocean from an oil platform operated by Petro Canada. The platform was quickly deactivated… and the leak/malfunction stopped… but the damage is already done.

I don’t know any information as to which direction the sea is headed, whether this spill is headed toward land or not but the CBC reports 2 ships are already on scene with a third on its’ way. Clean up can’t start until the weather abates, probably tomorrow.

Hope for the best…