http://nationalpost.com/pmn/news-pmn/canada-news-pmn/b-c-first-nation-says-it-has-created-world-class-spill-response-plan
B.C. First Nation says it has created world-class spill response plan
The Canadian Press
November 15, 2017
3:11 PM EST
Last Updated
November 15, 2017
3:11 PM EST
BELLA BELLA, B.C. — A British Columbia First Nation has released a plan
it says will give it a leading role in oil spill prevention and response
on the province’s central coast.
A report from the Heiltsuk Nation calls for the creation of an
Indigenous Marine Response Centre capable of responding within five
hours along a 350 kilometre stretch of the coast.
The centre proposal follows what the report calls the “inadequate, slow
and unsafe” response to the October 2016 grounding of the tug the Nathan
E. Stewart that spilled about 110,000 litres of diesel and other
contaminants.
Heiltsuk Chief Councillor Marilyn Slett says during that disaster her
people saw what senior governments had described as world-class spill
response and she says the Heiltsuk promised themselves that this would
never happen in their territory again.
The report says the proposed centre, on Denny Island across from Bella
Bella, and satellite operations dotted along the central coast, would
need a total investment of $111.5 million to be operational by next summer.
Unlike current response programs which the report says are limited
specifically to spills, the new centre would answer all marine calls
with the potential for oil contamination, including groundings, fires,
bottom contacts and capsizings.
“(The centre’s) effectiveness hinges on a fleet of fast response vessels
capable of oil clean up and containment, and a tug and barge system
providing storage and additional oil spill clean-up capabilities,” the
report says.
The barge would also be equipped with enough safety gear, provisions and
living space to allow a response team to remain on site for up to three
weeks without outside support.
The marine response centre would have annual operating costs of $6.8
million, covering a full-time staff and crew of 37.
“From Ahousaht with the Leviathan II to Gitga’at with the Queen of the
North to Heiltsuk with the Nathan E. Stewart, Indigenous communities
have shown that we are and will continue to be the first responders to
marine incidents in our waters,” says the report, signed by Slett and
hereditary Chief Harvey Humchitt.
Indigenous rescuers were first on the scene when six people died after
the whale-watching vessel the Leviathan II capsized north of Tofino in
2015. Two people were killed when the Queen of the North hit an island
and sank in 2006 west of Hartley Bay and First Nations helped in the rescue.
“The time has come to meaningfully develop our capacity to properly
address emergencies in our territories as they arise,” the report says.