NEB approves Enbridge's plan to expand oil pipeline through Hamilton
Local environmentalists are planning a rally to protest the decision
The National Energy Board has approved Enbridge's Line 10 expansion running 35 kilometres through rural Hamilton — a move local environmentalists call "Trudeau and Trump standing arm and arm."
The absolute minimum measure obvious to every thinking person is to stop making it worse.- Don McLean on climate change
The agency announced Thursday that Enbridge can move ahead with what it defines as replacement project: enlarging the existing 12-inch pipe with new 20-inch pipe from Westover to the Nanticoke Junction Facility in Glanbrook.
"The NEB believes the project is in the public interest," the board said in a release Thursday. The approval attaches 46 conditions to do with issues such as environmental protection and emergency management.
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The three-member panel also said the $219 million project is "unlikely to have significant adverse environmental effects."
"Today the National Energy Board issued its decision to conditionally approve Enbridge's Line 10 Westover Segment Replacement Project," said Enbridge media relations officer Ivan Giesbrecht.
"This project is an essential maintenance project, designed to make a safe pipeline even safer."
The Hamilton 350 committee has already responded. The group will have a No More Pipelines Rally outside the federal building at 55 Bay St. N. at 4 p.m. Friday.
"Today Trump and Trudeau stand arm in arm with the oil barons in a mad push toward more climate chaos," said local activist Don McLean via a Hamilton 350 release.
The Trudeau Liberals recognized flaws with the NEB before they were elected, he said. But now that they're in power, they haven't corrected them.
McLean sees the project as contributing to the impacts of climate change.
"The absolute minimum measure obvious to every thinking person is to stop making it worse," he said.
For its part, Enbridge maintains the likelihood of a leak is low. The company's plan to leave the old pipe in the ground is "the least disruptive option to the environment," it says.
The NEB granted participant status to 15 applicants, the board said. It also had a community meeting where Six Nations of the Grand River provided oral traditional evidence and oral cross examination and final argument.