Officials involved in the Energy East pipeline are reassuring the public of the rarity of a leak ahead of the National Energy Board (NEB) public hearings on the proposed project next week.
The NEB will hear from both proponents and opponents starting Monday morning in Saint John.
The port city would be the end-point of the pipeline, if it’s approved, and would be on the receiving end of about 1.1 million barrels of Alberta crude per day.
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The NEB hearings come just weeks after hundreds of thousands of litres of oil spilled into the North Saskatchewan river.
Energy East admits that spill could impact how the public perceives pipelines in general, but says it was an isolated incident.
“It doesn’t help,” Houston said. “It is an issue that’s of concern to the whole industry. What I can tell you is an incident, a leak like this one is rare and I would dare say that with the efforts we’re putting in with the Energy East project it will be even more rare in the future.”
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Even though the public hearing portion of the NEB process is beginning, the board wants people to know things are still very much in the communications stage.
“We’re still listening, we’re still talking, we’re still consulting,” said Gary Houston, vice president of stakeholder relations for Energy East. “We’re in the communities even as we’re in this NEB process.”
Both government and businesses have been supportive of the pipeline coming to Saint John, but opponents have also been very vocal and will have a strong presence at the hearings.
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National Energy Board hearings move on to Fredericton following Saint John.