The Toronto City Council in Toronto, Ontario, Canada recently voted to ask Enbridge Pipelines Inc. to install automatic shut-off valves and that the National Energy Board (NEB) not grant the pipeline firm Leave to Open. The automatic shut-off valves are being proposed for both sides of major watercourses crossed by one of Enbridge’s oil pipelines running through the Toronto area. Calgary-based Enbridge operates line 9, which carries oil between Sarnia and Montreal. In 2012, the National Energy board approved an application by Enbridge to reverse the flow – from west to east – of a portion of Line 9 running from Sarnia to Westover, about 30 kilometres northwest of downtown Hamilton. Then in 2014, NEB approved an application – with 30 conditions – to reverse the flow on Line 9B, which runs from Westover to Montreal. Line 9B runs through Toronto. Enbridge is applying to increase the capacity of Line 9 and to use it to transport heavy crude oil.
A summary provided with a motion put before Toronto City Council states that the city has “no formal input” into the NEB decision on Leave to Open.
But the Toronto Region Conservation Authority previously “expressed serious concerns that there are not enough automatic shut-off valves in the GTA, given the significance of our watershed, urban population, and infrastructure, especially our drinking water intakes and source water protection areas,” the summary with the motion stated.
In a press release in February, Enbridge noted that NEB “has required Enbridge to submit, within the next 12 months, a comprehensive analysis of water crossings which would determine whether additional isolation valves are necessary.”