A B.C. fisheries biologist studying the potential fallout of a Northern Gateway oil spill says some of the province’s waterways are too fast moving and complex for conventional containment methods.

Smithers resident Dave Bustard helped prepare a 100-page report for the joint review panel assessing Enbridge’s pipeline proposal, and says an oil spill could be devastating on local ecosystems and salmon stocks.

“I’m used to accepting risks associated with resource development, but the risks associated with this one are, in my mind, unacceptable,” Bustard told CTV News.

Bustard’s report focused on the potential impact on the Morice River, one of roughly 600 fish-bearing streams the 1,176-kilometre Northern Gateway pipeline would cross, and found the methods used to respond to the 2010 Kalamazoo River spill in Michigan simply would not be effective.

“Our assessment indicates that Morice River is too large, the water velocities are too fast for much of the year and the channels are too complex to use conventional containment booms, absorbents and skimmers to effectively collect oil as proposed in the Enbridge submission,” the report reads.

Slope instability in the area has the potential to rupture a pipeline, it argues, but the remoteness of the area would hinder a prompt response.

Bustard, who has nearly 40 years experience in his field, says bitumen components would also release toxins that would have chronic effects on salmon egg development and juvenile rearing in affected habitats.

“It leads to deformities, it leads to mortality, it leads to stunted growth and it could affect potential spawning success in this river for many years to come,” Bustard said.

Enbridge says it’s learned from the Michigan spill, however, upgrading the systems at its Edmonton control centre that allowed oil to gush into the Kalamazoo for 17 hours unnoticed.

It’s also promising a thicker, more robust pipeline for B.C. at an additional cost of half a billion dollars.

“We’ve increased the wall thickness on it, increased the valving to break it into smaller sections and to try and even reduce further the possibility of a problem in the future,” Enbridge CEO Patrick Daniel said.

But Michigan residents who witnessed the impact of a spill in their own backyards are still urging British Columbians to be wary of the Northern Gateway project.

Trae Allman’s land was damaged in the 2010 spill, and says plants still refuse to grow on the low-lying areas of his property. He says the risks associated with oil pipelines simply aren’t worth the gain, and offered words of caution to those in B.C.

“I’d tell them to fight it,” Allman said. “I’d tell them there’s not a lot of gain for the local community, and there’s a lot at risk.”

Pam Decuypere, who runs a wildlife refuge with her husband in Vicksburg, were forced into action after the Michigan pipeline ruptured and poured more than three million litres of diluted bitumen into the waterways.

Their property was turned into a makeshift clinic to clean birds and other animals covered in oil.

“It was gut-wrenching seeing these birds,” Decuypere said. “they were preening themselves, they were trying to clean themselves up and you knew they were ingesting the oil.”

There is no official tally yet on how many animals were killed in Michigan, though volunteers estimate the figure in the thousands.

Final hearings for the National Energy Board’s review panel examining the Northern Gateway proposal begin in September in Edmonton. A decision on the pipeline is not expected until fall of 2013.

With a report from CTV British Columbia’s Scott Roberts