NDP candidate Svend Robinson is calling on the federal government to conduct an full, independent assessment of the seismic risk potentially posed by Trans Mountain's oil storage tanks in Burnaby.
"It's up to the government, which now owns this tank farm, which owns these 65-year-old tanks. They owe it to the people of Canada and Burnaby to ensure there is no seismic risk," said Robinson, who's running for the NDP in the riding of Burnaby North-Seymour, at a press conference.
Robinson said he believes that Kinder Morgan and Trans Mountain have failed to be transparent and accountable to Burnaby residents about the safety of the tanks, which have floating roofs.
SFU Earth Science Professor Dr. John Clague, who spoke alongside Robinson at the press conference, relayed his concerns about the potential risk posed to the storage tanks by an earthquake.
"The ground moves regularly and the material begins to slosh almost uncontrollably inside a tank," he said. "That exerts an independent or another force on the structures that can cause them to fail."
But Trans Mountain refuted Robinson's concerns, pointing to their safety record when it comes to storage tanks.
"In 65 years of operation, we’ve never had a storage tank fire or structural incident with one of our tanks," the company said in a statement. "We have a number of additional safety measures specifically at the Burnaby Terminal, such as trained emergency response technicians, 24/7 monitoring for early fire detection and an advanced on site fire suppression system, which includes a rapidly deployable specialized sprinkler system designed for Wildfire-Urban Structure Protection and can be deployed along our fence line."
