By James Peters

Mock oil spill planned along Trans Mountain pipeline in Merritt

May 18, 2016 | 11:58 AM

MERRITT, B.C. — Emergency responders and Kinder Morgan officials will be out in force near the Merritt Airport tomorrow, conducting an emergency exercise.

Kinder Morgan’s Senior Director of Marine Operations, Michael Davies, explains what’s being simulated tomorrow.

“The scenario is a simulated spill from the pipeline, near where the Merritt Airport is, where the pipeline goes by. The oil is assumed to travel over land and then get into the Nicola River,” explained Davies, who added, “what will be deployed in the field as part of this exercise (are) containment booms and recovery equipment to practice the techniques for recovering the oil.”

Davies says local residents will be able to see crews work, but they shouldn’t be in the way of any public movement. “There aren’t any real special instructions It’s simulation of a spill, so there is no actual oil, or anything else in the river. What we are doing is practicing deploying equipment, and the activity will be around the Lions Park and N’Kwala Park.”

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“What they will see is our crews working with others to deploy boom, and booming strategies. We have pre-identified control points along the river, so they will be working at those locations to deploy boom and skimmers, and simulating all the activities that would be involved in recovering oil if it were to ever get into the water.” 

Davies says exercises like this are carried out as close as possible to real life scenarios. 

“There’s very little that can legally be used to simulate oil and pick it up. We’ve found it’s very effective to deploy the booms, and once they’re set up, to set up the skimmers and the storage capacity that would be used in a real spill.”

He adds it’s only a coincidence that tomorrow is the day the National Energy Board is expected to release its report on the proposed TransMountain expansion.

Kinder Morgan dealt with a oil leak 20km South of Merritt in June, 2013. The small underground leak was discovered through regular maintenance inspections. 

RELATED VIDEO: Kinder Morgan training at Pioneer Park in Kamloops (May 2014)