Environmental and indigenous groups said Thursday they are worried Canada may soon own the Puget Sound Pipeline that delivers crude oil to refineries in Whatcom and Skagit counties.
They are concerned the 69-mile pipeline may be expanded or the amount of oil that flows through it may be increased. They are also worried about plans to expand the larger Trans Mountain Pipeline that runs through Canada and connects with the local pipeline.
The Canadian government announced May 29 plans to purchase the Trans Mountain Pipeline system from Kinder Morgan to ensure completion of the planned expansion. That system includes the Puget Sound Pipeline spur.
“This news leaves us outraged, shocked and more resolved than ever to fight,” Victoria Leistman of Sierra Club Washington said Thursday, during a media briefing in Seattle.
The Puget Sound Pipeline supplies two refineries in Whatcom County and two in Skagit County — the Andeavor Anacortes Refinery and Shell Puget Sound Refinery — with Alberta tar sands oil.
Those four refineries currently receive more than half the oil sent through the Trans Mountain Pipeline across Alberta and British Columbia, according to Kinder Morgan documents.
While the Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion plan focuses on construction in Alberta and British Columbia, the potential to expand the Puget Sound Pipeline as well is penciled into some Kinder Morgan documents.
Local refineries have not said whether the planned Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion or a potential Puget Sound Pipeline expansion would impact them.
“For reasons of commercial confidentiality, it is Shell’s policy not to speculate on how external proposed projects like this one may impact our operations,” Shell Puget Sound spokesman Cory Ertel said.
The Andeavor Anacortes Refinery did not respond to a request for comment.
A document filed Feb. 20 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission states that although Kinder Morgan does not have plans to expand the Puget Sound Pipeline, its capacity could be increased from 240,000 to 500,000 barrels per day.
In recent years, the pipeline has operated below capacity. Between 2015 and 2017, it moved an average of 180,000 barrels per day to the refineries in Whatcom and Skagit counties, according to Kinder Morgan documents.
No plans to expand
While there are no current plans to expand the local pipeline, Liestman and several other representatives of environmental organizations and indigenous communities who spoke Thursday said they have concerns about the Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion and what it would mean for Washington.
Their primary concerns are that the planned expansion would increase tanker traffic in the Salish Sea and increase the amount of oil that would be exported overseas, burned and contribute to climate change.
According to Kinder Morgan, the expansion would include building a second pipeline alongside the existing Trans Mountain route between Edmonton, Alberta, and Burnaby, British Columbia. That would about triple the pipeline’s capacity from 300,000 to 890,000 barrels per day.
A marine port in Burnaby, near Vancouver, would also be expanded in order to ship more oil overseas, according to Kinder Morgan documents.
The Associated Press reported that the number of oil tankers moving oil from Alberta through the Salish Sea would increase from 60 to 400 as a result of the pipeline expansion.
Canada’s federal Finance and Natural Resources ministers said the country needs the project to diversify and increase exports, according to Associated Press and Canadian news reports.
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said Canada’s economic gains would not outweigh the increased risk of oil spills in the Salish Sea.
“By purchasing this pipeline, Canada is aligning itself with a giant fossil fuel project that would take us backward in profoundly damaging ways,” Inslee said in a statement provided to the Skagit Valley Herald. “I believe this is the wrong direction for our region. Now is not the time to increase our chances of a marine oil spill, nor is it the time to hinder our efforts to protect our already endangered orcas.”
Tribal and environmental leaders in Washington, along with First Nations and environmental leaders in British Columbia, have spoken out against and protested the expansion plans for several years.
Many of them were unhappy with Canada’s recent announcement that it would buy the pipeline for $3.5 billion and intends to complete the $5.7 billion expansion project.
“We’re here to say that we are angry, that this is not fair, that this is more than a pipeline issue,” said Cedar George-Parker, a member of the Tulalip Tribes and of the Tsleil-Waututh Nation in British Columbia. “Now, with the help of Washingtonians, we are here to say ‘No, we don’t want it.'”
