PREVIOUS | TABLE OF CONTENTS | NEXT

What We Heard

Community: St. John's

Directed stakeholder and town hall meetings took place in the city of St. John's on July 7, 2006, with approximately 50 participants in total.

Directed Stakeholder Meeting

The following groups were invited to the directed stakeholder meetings:

• Protected Areas Association
• Newfoundland and Labrador Environmental Network
• Conservation Corps
• ACAP St. John's
• St. John's Clean and Beautiful
• Natural History Society
• Memorial University: Masters in Environmental Engineering Department
• CLEAN
• Newfoundland Environmental Association, Inc.
• DG Taylor, Consulting Ecologist
• Newfoundland and Labrador Environmental Industry Association
• C-PAWS
• Nature Conservancy Council of Canada.

After formal presentations by Transport Canada RMRI, the following questions/issues were addressed:

• A question was raised on the effectiveness of the current AIS equipment onboard ships. For instance, will all boats have AIS and when? The following points were noted:
  • Under the auspices of the Eastern Traffic Zone Regulations, vessels are tracked using AIS within the 12-mile limit.
  • Every foreign vessel has a VHF transponder on board that is used to track the ships between 30 to 50 nautical miles from shore.
  • The current AIS system will be enhanced in the coming year with the installation of 70 AIS receiving stations on shore to track ships along the south coast's main shipping corridor.
  • These will be installed in 17 sites around the province by 2008.
  • The system will be phased in as it will take time for all vessels to acquire it. Consultation with industry will also be required.
  • Most fishers have a black box and can be traced.
• To identify marine oil polluters, Canada should establish an oil ‘fingerprint' library because various types of crude have a distinct fingerprint. This is currently being done internationally and should involve integration and the sharing of information between countries.
• Although outside the scope of the study, questions were raised about whether the province has plans and facilities to manage the waste resulting from an oil spill. The ability to manage all aspects of response is required in federal regulations for contingency plans, but the waste management facilities are the province's responsibility. There was then a general discussion of what is needed for immediate, temporary and long-term waste management.
• When discussing mystery spills, it was asked if ships are inspected to ensure they are safe and have bilge alarms prior to entering Canadian waters. It was noted that all tankers must be inspected when entering Canadian waters for the first time and then annually.
• Prevention is key, and better facilities are required for vessels to get rid of their waste oil. Every port is supposed to have a waste reception so the demand can be met.
• A question was raised about what infrastructure is in place for beach clean-ups and is bio-remediation being considered.
• Concerns were raised that a trained volunteer workforce is not currently available. Is the current training adequate? Training should be considered as a factor in the prevention of spills. A suggestion was made that the federal and provincial governments should look into having a trained volunteer workforce available for response operations.
• Municipal governments are not well informed and should work together to address this important issue.
• The location of the response equipment is a concern because most of the equipment is located in Mount Pearl, not near the highest risk areas in Placentia Bay. How will the equipment be transported to Placentia Bay if the highways are closed due to a severe blizzard?

Public Consultation

After formal presentations by Transport Canada and RMRI, the following questions/issues were addressed:

• It was suggested that some mystery spills might be caused by natural seeps in the seabed and not by vessels.
• Concern was expressed that the annual seasonal losses of seabirds to oil continues to be a major problem that must be dealt with.
• It was suggested that Conception Bay also be included in the study since Baccalieu Island is a key seabird reserve and there is significant marine traffic in the area. It was noted that while the area of interest ends at Cape St. Francis, RMRI has captured most of the tanker traffic associated with Conception Bay, such as traffic associated with the Ultramar facility and the Holyrood generating station.
• It was noted that the study focuses on accidental spills versus intentional spills; however, it was suggested that the dumping of processed water at Hibernia is an intentional spill done under permit. It was stated that the release of produced water is essentially an oil spill.
• Concern was expressed that mystery spills are not included in the study. Is there an international record of vessels leaving and arriving that could be used to track down mystery spills?
• Tourism must be considered. It was noted that RMRI consultants, Canning and Pitt, are considering tourism in their socio-economic work for the study and will be accessing a variety of data sources, including individual operators and Hospitality Newfoundland and Labrador.
• A question was asked about whether the study will consider the effectiveness of dispersants.

PREVIOUS | TABLE OF CONTENTS | NEXT