Please help demand that the Alberta Energy Resources Conservation Board (ERCB) and Plains Midstream meet Lubicon community needs now. The Lubicon community require the following:
* ERCB to attend Lubicon community meetings to effectively answer community members' questions
* independent environmental assessment reporting to community
* Lubicon fly-over of the spill-affected area to survey immediate damage to traditional territory
* health response team stationed in Lubicon community immediately to respond to those who continue to get sick from the air, especially children
* note that other First Nations and communities in the area have not
even been informed of the spill
Contact ERCB as soon as possible via phone, fax, or email:
Dan McFadyen, Chairman
Energy Resources Conservation Board
Suite 1000, 250 – 5 Street SW
Calgary, Alberta
T2P 0R4
Chairman's phone: (403) 297-2215
FAX: (403) 297-7336
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All American Pipeline,
Corporate Headquarters,
333 Clay Street, Suite 1600,
Houston TX 77002,
Phone 713.646.4100
*note The pipeline company that is proposing to build a major pipeline into Texas, bring crude oil from the tar sands in Alberta, Canada is TransCanada Corporation, 450 - 1 Street SW, Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2P 5H1, Phone: 1.800.661.3805 (Toll-free within North America), Fax: 1.403.920.2200
Also direct pressure to Alberta Premier:
Office of the Premier
Room 307, Legislature Building
10800 - 97th Avenue
Edmonton, Alberta
T5K 2B7
Fax: (780) 427 1349
Residents, including children, sick after large oil spill in the Peace Region
Canada NewsWire May 4, 2011
EDMONTON, May 4 /CNW/ - Little Buffalo community members, including school children, continue to experience nausea, burning eyes and headaches after one of the largest pipeline spills in Alberta history last Friday by Plains All American leaked nearly 30,000 barrels of oil into Lubicon traditional territory in the Peace Region of Northern Alberta.
Instead of attending an in-person community meeting, the Alberta Energy Resources Conservation Board (ERCB) faxed a one-page fact sheet to Little Buffalo School. The fact sheet indicates that tens of thousands of barrels of crude oil, or 4,500 cubic metres, has spread into nearby stands of "stagnant water." The spill, April 29 at 7:30 a.m., occurred only 300 metres from local waterways. The ERCB said the spill has been contained, but community members report that the oil is still leaking into the surrounding forest and bog. The ERCB also said to the community that there is "no threat to public safety as a result of the leak." Yet people are still getting sick, the local school has been shut down and children ordered to stay at home. An investigation into the incident is underway.
"It has been four days since classes were suspended due to the noxious odours in the air. The children and staff at the school were disorientated, getting headaches and feeling sick to their stomachs," said Brian Alexander, the principle of Little Buffalo School. "We tried to send the children outside to get fresh air as it seemed worse in the school but when we sent them out they were getting sick as well.
"The company and the ERCB have given us little information in the past five days. What we do know is that the health of our community is at stake," said Chief Steve Noskey. "Our children cannot attend school until there is a resolution, The ERCB is not being accountable to our community; they did not even show up to our community meeting to inform us of the unsettling situation we are dealing with. The company is failing to provide sufficient information to us so we can ensure that the health and safety of our community is protected."
The ERCB fact sheet states that air monitors are in place on site and have "detected no hydrocarbon levels above Alberta Ambient Air Quality guidelines." But this is little consolation for a community that is scared to breathe the air. Veronica Okemow has six children, the youngest one attending the school, and she is very worried. "We are deeply concerned about the health effects on the community," Okemow said. "It is a scary thing when your children are feeling sick from the air. People are scared to breathe in the fumes."
Pipeline Companies are constantly trying to ensure the public that these massive pipelines crossing North America are safe. "With TransCanada and Enbridge pipeline corporations vying to build massive pipelines to the Pacific and Gulf Coasts, First Nation and American Indian Tribes near the path of these pipelines currently have tribal resolutions opposing the construction of these pipelines. They foresee that these proposed pipelines would endanger their water, air and lands, for future generations. Alberta's big oil companies are putting our communities at risk for a short ranged economic gain", Says Clayton Thomas-Muller of the Indigenous Environmental Network.
Melina Laboucan-Massimo, a member of the Lubicon Cree First Nation and a Greenpeace Climate & Energy Campaigner in Alberta said: "The Plains All American spill marks the second pipeline spill in Alberta in just a week, with Kinder Morgan spilling just days before. This is an alarm bell for Alberta residents. If this 45-year-old pipeline were to break elsewhere along its route there would be more safety and health hazards. Communities across Alberta and B.C. are demanding an end to this type of risky development; yet the government refuses to listen. Instead it continues on as business as usual without plans for the cleaner, healthier, sustainable future that is possible."
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