British Columbia’s government is taking the first step toward defining a marine-based spill response model to protect the province’s 27,000-kilometre coastline.
The Ministry of Environment is contracting Alaska-based Nuka Research and Planning Group to review, evaluate, and prepare a report on the current marine oil spill prevention, preparedness, and response regime for coastal British Columbia to identify changes needed. As part of the contract, Nuka will complete the following work:
- A vessel traffic study assessing the current and potential levels of shipping on the west coast of Canada, focusing on oil-carrying vessels.
- An assessment of the existing spill prevention and response regime in place for B.C.
- A preliminary analysis to identify international best practices for marine oil spill prevention and response, based on a high-level review of other systems.
This work supports the second of government’s five minimum requirements for new heavy oil pipelines in British Columbia.
