Pipeline owner sues Burnaby for oil spill

WENDY STUECK
Globe and Mail
January 8, 2008

VANCOUVER — The owner of a pipeline accidentally ripped open last summer has sued the city of Burnaby, alleging that a contractor working on a storm sewer failed to use accurate maps and started excavation before the pipeline's location was staked out.

The lawsuit, filed in December by Trans Mountain pipeline and Kinder Morgan Canada, names the city, engineering firm RF Binnie, contractor B. Cusano and an unnamed backhoe operator as defendants.

The action, which claims damages and costs, does not specify an amount. But the July 24 midday spill - which sent a geyser of crude gushing up 12 metres in the air and resulted in about 30 homes being evacuated - caused millions of dollars worth of damage and required weeks of cleanup. About 200,000 litres of oil spewed from the ruptured pipeline in the 20 minutes or so it took to cut off the flow.

Kinder Morgan operates the Trans Mountain pipeline, which ships crude and refined oil from Edmonton to Burnaby and has been in service since 1953.

After years of being ignored or taken for granted, the pipeline became a neighbourhood nightmare last summer when a storm sewer upgrade went dramatically wrong.

The upgrade involved the sewer system near Burnaby's Inlet Drive, part of the area through which the Trans Mountain pipeline snakes underground.

As part of the upgrade, crews had to excavate near the pipeline - work that had to be conducted according to federal regulations that govern pipeline crossings.

According to the lawsuit, the depth and the location of the Trans Mountain pipeline were to be verified by hand digging or by Hydro-Vac (an excavation method that uses high-pressure water and a vacuum system to expose underground lines) in the presence of a Kinder Morgan inspector.

An inspector was scheduled to visit the construction site to review the proposed crossing on July 25.

But on July 24, and without notice or consultation with the pipeline's owners, the contractor started excavating with a backhoe "within three metres of the Trans Mountain Pipeline and prior to the pipeline being exposed by hand excavation," the lawsuit states.

The defendants also failed to prepare and use accurate maps of the location of the pipeline, the lawsuit claims.

The legal action "was not unexpected," said Bruce Rose, a lawyer for the city of Burnaby.

The city's liability insurer has hired counsel and will help the city prepare its defence, Mr. Rose said, saying he did not know the extent of the city's coverage.

Mr. Rose declined to comment on many of the suit's specific allegations, but said the city would be focusing on information that had been provided to it by Kinder Morgan.

"One of the main grounds we have for defence is that we believe Kinder Morgan provided our engineering contractor with some misinformation as to the location of the pipe," Mr. Rose said.

"Just in general terms, that's really why we say, 'Hey, it's not our fault.' "

Shell Canada, which runs a distribution terminal near the site of the spill, filed a lawsuit against some of the same parties last year that seeks to recover losses resulting from the spill.