Aging Chevron oil refinery must clean up or shut down
By Peter Cech, The Province June 1, 2010
I am appalled that oil leaks are still happening in Burrard Inlet in the heart of the Lower Mainland.
There's a long string of "events" related to Chevron's operations in North Burnaby. "Unplanned discharges" of particulate and toxic fumes in the air we breathe are an annual event.
We've even been subjected to leaks of methyl tertiary butyl ether. This goes beyond the "nuisance odours" we've been subjected to for decades.
People who are asking "Why doesn't this guy just move?" should really be asking how, when a community was built up around the Chevron refinery 50 years ago, could Chevron continue to do the bare minimum required by regulation to protect its neighbours?
Oil has been seeping into Burrard Inlet for over a month. Has Chevron borrowed BP's emergency response manual? How will we ever know how much oil we're dealing with and how can we ever be certain that it's cleaned up?
If the infrastructure at Chevron's aging Burnaby facility has decayed to the point where "leaks" are becoming the norm, our provincial and federal governments have got to either get Chevron Canada to clean up its act or shut this cancerous tumour down for good.
Peter Cech, Burnaby
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