Pipeline review pushed by Alberta landowners, coalition

Environmentalists, landowners and labour groups are pushing the Alberta government to investigate oil and gas pipeline safety.

A coalition has taken out an advertisement in weekly newspapers pressing for the review.

The recent spill into the Red Deer River raises questions about Alberta's 400,000 kilometres of pipelines, said the Sierra Club's Chelsea Flook.

"We wanted to counter the government's message that this is an exception — this isn't an ordinary occurrence — when in fact in Alberta it is," she said. "We're seeing on average for oil and gas pipelines and energy related pipelines one spill every 1.4 days.

"We will continue to see oil spilled in this province with such a massive network of pipelines of which 40 per cent were built before 1990," she said.

Premier Alison Redford says she is waiting to find out the cause of three recent spills before deciding on a review.