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VOR 1X0

priori sot RATERS

March 13, 1992

Mayor and Council

City of Port Coquitlam

2580 Shaughnessy

Port Coquitlam, BC V3C 2A8

To the Mayor and Council,

We wish to bring to your attention a recent development that we believe
may contribute to the risk of an oil spill on BC's coast. An intervention by
your council at this time, whether a detailed resolution or a short letter sent
to the appropriate offices, could play a significant part in protecting our
communities and environment from a disastrous spill.

Our concern is with the Port of Vancouver's 700-page Risk Analysis of
‘Tanker Movements in the Port of Vancouver. We are convinced that it is a
deeply flawed document that may, if accepted, encourage a situation of far
greater risk to BC waters than the report acknowledges.

Attached you will find critiques of the Port's study by Dr.Andrew
Thompson (former commissioner of the West Coast Oil Port Inquiry), David
Suzuki (scientist and broadcaster), Bob Bossin (spokesperson for Call for
inquiry) and Michael Akey (environmental lawyer). We believe that their
comments will leave you as deeply concerned as we are.

- Shortly, we will suggest steps your council can take to address the situation.
Before doing so, however, we want to put the Port's study in context.

Background

According to the analysis done by Environment Canada for the BC/States
_ Task Force on Oil Spills, a major oil spill (greater than 10,000 barrels) in the
- Georgia Strait/Juan de Fuca/Puget Sound basin is a virtual certainty within 20
years. Such a spill could have disastrous and long-lasting effects on all
Georgia Basin communities. (Minor spills - greater than 1000 barrels - have
been occurring, as predicted by Environment Canada, every 3 years.)
_ The most likely source of a large spill in our waters is an accident
involving a tanker carrying Alaskan oil to the refineries in Puget Sound.
Unfortunately, this is a US trade in US waters. Still, it is important that