Jet fuel pipeline springs a leak

Jet fuel pipeline springs a leak
By Dan Hilborn, Burnaby Now assistant editor
Published July 23, 2003


The Terasen jet fuel pipeline that runs from north Burnaby to the Vancouver airport sprung a leak Monday afternoon, shutting down a portion of Willingdon Avenue and causing some serious concern for area residents.

The leak, which was discovered at about 12:45 p.m. by a worker from the nearby Chevron refinery, was stopped within five minutes of the first report, said Kathy Seifert, a public affairs specialist with Terasen's corporate head office in Calgary.

"At this time, there is no danger to the public," Seifert said Tuesday morning. "We closed off all the flow, but there has been some inconvenience to the residents due to the road closure."

The closure affected a one-block section of Willingdon, between Cambridge and Oxford streets, forcing large tanker trucks travelling in and out of the nearby refinery to reroute onto normally quite residential side streets.

Officials with both Terasen and Chevron expected Willingdon to re- open before the end of the day Tuesday.

While investigators have yet to determine exactly how much fuel was spilled, Seifert said her firm's response crews suspect the pipeline was leaking only for a short time.

"The amount is not known at this time, but what we're hearing from the crew that's out there is they feel the leak was quite small," she said.

Seifert said the 18 centimetre pipeline delivers 2,800 cubic metres (2.8 million litres) of jet fuel to the airport each day. The 41 kilometre pipeline received a clean bill of health after a caliper test looked for deformations in the pipeline wall in December 2002 and then a high resolution tool run tested the thickness of the pipeline in January 2003.

Judi Marshall, an area resident who has previously expressed concern about living next to a working oil refinery, said she drove past the pipeline while it was leaking and did not realize what had happened until she saw emergency response crews cleaning up the spill.

While Marshall admits the Chevron refinery is doing a better job of limiting the number of 'incidents' at its plant, she is concerned that she and her neighbours still have not received an official emergency response plan in the event of a major incident related to the refinery.

"While Chevron has made steps forward in terms of its response, I wonder about the emergency preparedness," she said. "As much as I'm reassured by everyone involved that this was nothing to worry about, I certainly don't feel the same way.

"Maybe they've done everything that could be done, but I don't know. But in this case it appears that Chevron probably did a good job. At least they found the leak and alerted the pipeline company."

Ray Lord, manager of community affairs for the Chevron refinery, was pleased with his company's response to the incident.

"Chevron noticed it first and stopped the product from moving through the pipeline," Lord said. "All the valves were closed and then Terasen was notified.

"From Chevron's perspective, this was not a safety issue at all," said Lord, who added that Chevron is now most concerned with the tanker traffic being rerouted through the residential streets in the Heights neighbourhood.