Oil rigs off the coast of British Columbia would pollute the air and water, and emit greenhouse gases. They would also create the ever present danger of oil spills.
The impact of oil spills can have a lasting effect on the marine ecosystem. They would also damage existing industries in coastal communities like commercial and sport fishing and the tourism industry. Newfoundland's offshore oil industry had 163 spills between 1997 and 2003. But Newfoundland’s rigs are 200 km offshore where spills are washed out to sea. Here, the rigs would be less than 80 km from land and spilled oil would wash ashore. Also, any oil rigs off the coast of B.C. would be over Canada’s most active earthquake zone.
Pollution occurs at all stages of oil and gas production. Liquid, solid, noise, gaseous and aerosol discharges and emissions are released during seismic testing, exploratory drilling, extraction and transportation.
Air pollution
A single offshore rig emits the same quantity of air pollution as 7,000 cars driving 50 miles per day.One of the most dangerous and controversial aspects of oil and gas extraction is called flaring. Flaring is a common practice used to burn off gas to test a well’s potential, to deal with a malfunction at the well or to separate gas from oil deposits. The emissions released from flaring contain more than 250 toxic compounds including:
-
sulphur dioxide, a lung and heart irritant;
-
benzene, a known carcinogen;
-
nitrogen oxide, a known asthma trigger;
-
toluene, a toxin linked to reproductive problems.
