Botched English Bay Oil Spill Response (ctd)...Is 'User-Pay' Another Way Of Saying 'Self-Regulating'?

FoxesInAllTheHenHouses
'RUsNowVille


David Ball has a good story up at the Tyee about the fine folks who are actually doing the cleaning up.

Here is his lede:

The private firm which spent an entire night attempting to contain a heavy oil spill in English Bay last week has defended the length of time it took to arrive at the accident -- about 80 minutes -- as "an incredible response time."

However, Michael Lowry, a spokesman for Western Canada Marine Response Corporation (WCMRC), suggested the longer delay came after the Canadian Coast Guard alerted British Columbia's network of emergency management partners that a spill had occurred.

It took that group nearly three hours -- from 5:14 p.m. to 8:06 p.m. -- to notify WCMRC that a serious spill had occurred. WCMRC is the oil-industry owned consortium responsible for spill clean up on the West Coast.

Under B.C.'s emergency protocols, those partners are a network of agencies that include "local, shore-side authorities" such as municipal governments and First Nations as well as relevant government bodies, according to a Coast Guard news release...


Now.

Leaving aside Mr. Lowry's throwing of the Coast Guard under the bus and his claims (which come later in the piece) that this is not 'contracting out', let's have a specific look at what Mr. Ball wrote about the 'user pay' model aspect of this fine little privatization scheme:

..Lowry confirmed that the owners of the ship (leaking the oil) were paying members of the WCMRC -- meaning there would be an established process to ensure that the ship owner paid for the clean up. That's a requirement of visiting a Canadian port, Lowry said. A ship without such an arrangement must first sign an 11-page "third-party agreement" to get spill help. Luckily, last week that wasn't needed...


All good, I suppose, at least if you are a 'paid-up' member of the scheme.

But what if you are not?

Or, put another way, if the ship leaking all that bunker oil had not been part of the club/scheme would Mr. Lowry's folks have even responded at all while everybody waited for the ship's owners (who originally denied that the Marathassa was even leaking the oil) to find that 'third party' help as per their self-regulating 'agreement'.

Gosh.

If you close your eyes and shake your head a little bit you might almost think that we're discussing meat packing plants....

Or some such thing.


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Is Latest Meat Plant (Almost) Disaster Another Condemnation Of Mr. Harper's Ideology of 'Self-Regulation'?

ThankTheGoddessForThe
WhistleblowersVille


I've written a lot about how it is my opinion that the cutting of public meat plant inspectors to the bone so that the private profit-driven plants can 'self-regulate' contributed significantly to Listeria outbreaks on Mr. Harper's watch.

At least one of which killed people.

Well....

The latest 'contamination-in-a-private-plant' story would appear to reinforce that opinion (times about a million).

Natalie Clancy of the MoCo has the story of the Pitt Meadows plant that allegedly tried to keep a positive E.Coli O157  test a secret.

Here is her lede:

Pitt Meadows Meats is expected to plead guilty on Monday to at least one count of selling E. coli-tainted meat in 2010, CBC News has learned.

One of British Columbia's largest meat processing plants, which now calls itself Meadow Valley Meats, was charged with 11 counts under the Food and Drugs Act for selling meat unfit for human consumption after a former employee contacted the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

The coverup came to light when Daniel Land, who oversaw the plant's quality assurance, later contacted CBC News, saying officials at Pitt Meadows Meats told him to keep quiet about the positive test result obtained on Sept. 9. 2010.

Land said a manager failed to report lab results that showed a sample of its product was contaminated with the deadly E. coli O157 strain.

Regulations require federally licensed plants to report such findings.

"They told me that this would be looked after — they would pull it off the shelf," Land said from his home in Edmonton. "Shame on them. There was tainted meat in the marketplace and they did nothing."...


So.

Re-capping....

A private plant does it's own test.

As a result, the private plant finds evidence of contamination from a strain of bacteria that can make people very, very sick.

And what does the private plant do?

It tries to hide the result.

And just where are the public inspectors in all of this again?


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And what happened to Mr. Land the whistleblower?...Well, as you might expect, the company fired him...The man is a hero.


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Responding To Burrard Inlet Oil Spills...How Much Difference Does Four Hours Make?

AllTheHoursThatFit
NotKitsilanoVille


Earlier today we noted that the Coastguard's latest limited hangout has them trumpeting the fact that they managed to get the spill response contractor to the English Bay spill within a most excellent four hours and fifteen minutes.

So....

How long would it taken if the Kits base had not been dismantled in 2013, ostensibly to save 'us' $700,000 per year?

Kelly Sinoski of the VSun has the latest on that. Here is her lede:

VANCOUVER - A retired Coast Guard coxswain says the English Bay spill could have been contained within half an hour if the Kitsilano base was still operating.

Capt. Tony Toxopeus, a trained pollution response technician, dismissed claims by the the Canadian Coast Guard that the Kitsilano base was only a rescue station, noting it was equipped with a purpose built oil pollution response vessel, 300 metres of of Kepner self-inflating boom and skimmer and power pack, while crews were trained regulary to deal in oil spill response.

“As soon as we saw there was bunker we would have hit the alarm button and got moving,” Toxopeus said. “We could have backed the boat in, towed the boom there and be alongside the boat in 30 minutes.”...


Again, as we noted earlier, this was a small spill.

But...

Can anyone seriously argue that such a delay would not make a big difference in the event of a large spill?


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Personally, I am still not convinced that the $700,000 in per annum 'savings' is the real reason that base was closed.


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The Gagging Of People With Tough Messages...It's Not Just For FedCons Anymore.

AllTheFreeSpeechThatDoesn'tQuite
FitVille


Remember how we were all set to get a documentary on the TeeVee telling us who the really big foreign spenders in the Canadian Oil Patch are back in February.

And then, remember how Global television told us that the doc would be aired next year?

Well...

Even that 'rescheduling' was problematic given when the federal election is (kinda/sorta/maybe) scheduled to occur.

But it turns out that the real story of what really went down at Global is likely much, much worse.

Jesse Brown has the story, today, at Canadaland. The following is his lede:

Veteran investigative reporter Bruce Livesey was fired by Global News shortly after talking to CANADALAND about the fact that management had pulled his documentary, The Koch Connection, from their broadcast schedule.

As CANADALAND reported in February, Livesey's documentary about the billionaire Koch Brothers and their ties to Canada was set for broadcast on Global News' 16x9 investigative newsmagazine, only to be pulled from the broadcast schedule and scrubbed from Global's website shortly before it was set to air...


You can hear Mr. Brown's interview with Mr. Livesey....Here.


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Luckily, there are other sources already out there where we can go to piece some of the information together regarding what Mess'rs Koch and Koch are up to here in Canuckistanmikitaville....For example, ever wondered how much money they have given to the very fine Fraser Institute and all it's super finest of the fine scholarship?


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The First Casualty Of A Botched Oil Spill Response Is The Truth

YouWantASaladSpinnerForThatOilSoaked
SeaweedVille


Don't know about you, but when I heard Assistant Coast Guard Commissioner Robert Giroaurd say the following Sunday morning I knew something was up:

..."We thought we had a sophisticated (communications) system in place. Something went awry," he said. "We will fix it."...

Specifically, I figured that the 'communications' issue would be their limited hangout in front of a PR offensive that began with the 'detailed' timeline that showed that the contracted spill response company was on site 'just' four hours and fifteen minutes after the Coast Guard first received the call that oil was in the water (call came in at 5:10pm, contractor arrived at 9:25pm).

Well...

By Sunday afternoon Pravda on the Rideau had cranked its wurlitzer to warp speed.

Suddenly all we heard about was the fantastic spill response...That fewer waterfowl had been affected than first thought...That the contracting company was doing a bang up job...That the company workers were really working it and everything, with pictures from PravOnRid's unofficial official photographer and everything (Charlie Smith has that story)...And that the old Coast Guard base couldn't really have dealt with any of this anyway.

And then there was that business about how there was only a milk jug of oil left in the water, or some such thing, that the screamers and ethicalized lubricists like the good Mr. Levant started howling about.

Now.

All of this codswallop will probably move the center of the proMedia version of the story just far enough over to the 'look-how-everybody-over-reacted' side of the conventional wisdom ledger such that very fine less screamerish proMedia folks like the Keef can rub the citizenry's nose in it even further.

But none of that will change the fact that what did NOT happen was the arrival of a Coast Guard boat with spill response capabilities, within minutes (i.e. not 4 hours), to the scene.

Which, as we learned, Thursday is very likely what WOULD have happened if the Kitsilano Coast Guard station had not been dismantled by the federal government of Stephen Harper (and which the provincial government of Christy Clark barely lifted a finger to stop) in 2013.

” …(F)ormer Kits base commander Fred Moxey...told (CKNW) that a special pollution response boat formerly stationed at the now shuttered Kitsilano Coast Guard base is sitting empty with no crew at Sea Island base in Richmond. According to Moxey, only a rubber boat from the Coast Guard responded to the English Bay oil spill last night. Moxey also told us the Osprey formerly stationed at Kits was dismantled and sold off then when the base was closed. Moxey says if Kits Base was still active today crews would have been on scene at the spill in six minutes with the equipment to deal with the situation...”

****

So, to sum up...

Yes, this was a small spill.

But let's step back a bit and ask the bigger question about the bigger truth.

Would anyone be happy with a 4 hour plus response if this had been a large spill?


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And, just in case you were wondering...No, the Keef did not answer my question the direct question posed to him on the Twittmachine in response to his veiled attempt at hippie/environmentalist punching.


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Laila Asks....'What Matters To You?'

WhoSaysBloggingDoesn't
MatterVille


Lotuslandian blogger, neighbour, and community activist extraordinare, Laila Yuile, has written a tremendously inspiring blogpost in which she explains how it is we, the citizenry, who are best position affect change just by getting involved.

The following is just a small bit of Laila's post, but please go and read it all (and don't miss the fantastic informed and informative comment thread as well):

...What matters to you? What impacts your life directly? Write a letter to the editor next time you see a story that touches you in some manner. Write a letter to your provincial MLA, or ask to meet them. Let your member of parliament know what you think of their government’s policy. As them what they actually do, or have done for your community.

That’s not only your right as a citizen, I’m telling you it is your duty as one too.

Ask questions, hard ones and demand answers. In writing. If you get none, write a letter to the editor about that as well. Start a conversation with your neighbour, your co-worker, the person next to you at the bus stop.

The closure of the Kitsilano Coast Guard station was a decision made to save money. It was heavily protested by Vancouver residents and mariners alike. The government still defends that decision.

It doesn’t get more political than that....

Now, please go and read Laila's entire post.

Right now.

And when you're done, bookmark it and send it to all your friends and family members that you think it can help inspire.

OK?

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Just Who Owns That Kits Coast Guard Land Anyway?

AllTheElephantsThatFit
IntoAnEnglishBayMiniSlickVille


Remember how, way back in the mists of time (i.e. two years ago) there was a bit of a kerfuffle of who owned the land that the now dismantled Kitsilano Coast Guard once sat on?

And remember how, for a short while at least a few proMedia figured the Feds owned it.

And then, in the end, it turned out be under Provincial/Clarklandian government title.

So.

Given that the Clarklandians have been selling provincial land assets hand-over-fist to make their Corporate and Rich People's (never ending) Tax Holiday nut...

Who owns that land now?

And if we, the people of British Columbia still own it, what's to be done with it?


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Funny, donch'a think that when the Premier started the word salad spinner spinning yesterday and began babbling on about how the lousy English Bay spill response was all the Feds fault 'for decades' she went out of her way to say she didn't know if the destruction of the base as a factor...You want my opinion?...The destruction of the base was never about the so-called $700K per annum in 'savings'...Instead, the LandSwapCondoJack fix has been in from the beginning....And if that's really the case, that will be the real reason why Mr. Trudeau will NOT rebuild the base as kinda/sorta promised yesterday.


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English Bay Oil Spill ctd...Perhaps Now Is A Good Time To Ask Ourselves Why We Keep Electing Idiots

WhyPsychologyKeepsBesting
DemocracyVille


After a newscycle in which our Premier managed to blame both the Coast Guard and the Feds (who have been screwing things up for 'decades', at least according to her) while simultaneously stating that she didn't know if the recent Federally-mandated closure of Coast Guard base on provincial land had anything whatsoever to do with what she was babbling on about, perhaps we really should be asking ourselves the question noted in the header, above.

So, with that in mind...

If you are interested in exploring the issue on this decidedly Not-Sudbury Saturday night (at least in Lotusland) Dean Burnett had an interesting piece on the subject in The Guardian recently.

Here are a couple of chunks from his lede:

Politicians. Their reputation is very poor. In fairness, this is largely their own fault, but it would be foolish to assume every politician is like this. If they were, the whole infrastructure would collapse before you could say “can I claim this on expenses?” Still, everyone assumes they’re despicable, so always assume the worst.

Politician enacts a bad policy? They’re a terrible person. They change their mind and reverse it? They’re weak and not fit to lead. Politicians promise improvements (cut taxes, increase spending)? They’re obviously lying. Politicians promise to do something unpopular (raise taxes, cut spending)? A cast-iron guarantee it will happen. It’s a lose-lose situation, so why do they bother? Many politicians are clearly in it for themselves, but there surely are plenty who really do want the best and just put up with the negative opinions they get.

So, for the record, not all politicians are idiots (although your definition of idiot may vary). But plenty are. The US seem particularly afflicted with them; Sarah Palin, Ted Cruz, these people were/are contenders for the presidency. And the archetype George W Bush WAS the president. For 8 YEARS. The man whoseidiotic musings managed to sustain businesses had a nuclear arsenal at his command...

{snip}

...What’s going on here? Logically, you’d want an intelligent person who understands the best approach and methods for running a country in the best possible way. But no, people seem drawn to demonstrations of questionable intellectual abilities. There are a wide variety of ideological, cultural, social, historical, financial and other factors involved, because politics incorporates all of these things, but there are also some known psychological processes that may contribute to this phenomenon...



There is something to keep in mind though, that Mr. Burnett does not go into in any depth in his piece.

Which is that, when it comes to Wizards and Patrons at least, some idiots are more useful than others.

OK?



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And, just in case you would rather have the musical version of a real Sudbury Saturday Night fill your earworm-riddled cortext this evening instead...You might want to partake in BOTH....The Original and this hepped-up Canuckistanmikitavillian cover version.



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English Bay Oil Spill, ctd....What's The Frequency Keef?

JustBecauseYouShoutHypocrisyInAnOilyHarbour
Doesn'tMeanYouAren'tCoveredInACarbon-BasedSheenVille


It would appear that the good Mr. Baldrey has returned from Spring Break and is once again showing off his finer than ultra-fine, but highly formulaic, tweetology:

But here's the thing...

Who amongst the folks that are rightfully upset about the slow Coast Guard response to the spill has even suggested such a thing?

Seriously Mr. Baldrey.

Who?

****

Meanwhile....

In non-Lotuslandian Club member call-out news, a Seattle proMedia member who knows a thing or ten about the laxity in environmental regulatory enforcement in British Columbia  takes Mr. Baldrey out to the woodshed with his codswallop and whacks him up the side of the head with it:

Quick.

Someone find Keef a fainting couch immediately!


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Previous pre-Spring Break Keef Reports can be found....Here.
What's with all this 'What's The Frequency' business?...Well...This.


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English Bay Oil Spill...No Volunteers Required.

AllTheToxcityThat
FitsVille


Yes that's right, no volunteers are being used in the clean-up because...

The folks trying to clean things up are all hazmat suits, all the time.

At least for the moment.

How do I know this for sure?

Because our fine Mayor sent me a 'personal' Email message about this latestdevelopment earlier this afternoon:

...Hundreds of people have contacted us, asking how they can help. The federal government has advised the City that the formal oil spill clean-up of the shoreline will begin this afternoon, with crews in protective gear, and there is no involvement for volunteers. I appreciate the thousands of offers that have come in to help, and we will continue to work with the federal and provincial authorities to find ways for our volunteers to help.

Our focus as a City is assisting the federal and provincial governments in any way we can to control the oil spill and clean up our waters and shores. In the coming days, you can expect the Vision team to be asking the tough questions about what went wrong and what needs to change.

Thanks for your support,

Gregor



Did I mention previously that the Mayor and I operate on a first name basis?

No?

Must have slipped my mind.


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Meanwhile, in word-salad land...The wizards and watercarriers, they be talkin' crazy.

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Roll Over George Orwell....The Flack Hackeries Give Us The News

AllTheObfuscationThatFits
PropagammonVille

“We certainly appreciate that there are members of the community who are passionate about their community,” said Scott Fisher, a principal partner of Baron Properties. “That is one of the reasons we are attracted to this area. We want to be part of the community and enhance the landscape.”

And the 'community' that the fine folks and flacks from Barson Properties want to be a part of?

Well...

That would be the much muraled 'Roosevelt Row' arts district of Pheonix Arizona shown in the image above that Barson and other developers are heckfire bent on destroying.

Imagine that!



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Image above is from Candace Porth's Phoenix-centric photo-blog...


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The Premier's Word Salad Goes Nicely With English Bay Oil-Based Dressing.

WhereWasSheYesterday?
She'llNeverTellVille


The Premier has (finally) spoken and, according to the CBC, actually stated that she doesn't know if the closure of Kits Coast Guard base played a role in the (delayed) response time to the English Bay oil spill.

Well...

Actually.

No.

” …former Kits base commander Fred Moxey, who told (CKNW) that a special pollution response boat formerly stationed at the now shuttered Kitsilano Coast Guard base is sitting empty with no crew at Sea Island base in Richmond. According to Moxey, only a rubber boat from the Coast Guard responded to the English Bay oil spill last night. Moxey also told us the Osprey formerly stationed at Kits was dismantled and sold off then when the base was closed. Moxey says if Kits Base was still active today crews would have been on scene at the spill in six minutes with the equipment to deal with the situation...”


Gosh.

Didn't the good Ms. Clark used to 'work' for CKNW?



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And no, this word salad-driven psycho-babble from our fine Premier is NOT a new thing.



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English Bay Oil Spill...And Just What Would Have Been Different If The Coast Guard Base Was Still There?

HowMuchDoesItCostToDestroyAPublicWaterwayAnyway
SevenHundredThousandPerYearVille


Well.

Not only would the response likely NOT have been delayed for at least three hours.

But.

The response itself likely would have been much, much more effective from the get-go as noted by the former Kits Coast Guard commander who, as Laila noted in her excellent post late last night, called in to the Simi Sara show on NW yesterday afternoon:

” …former Kits base commander Fred Moxey, who told us that a special pollution response boat formerly stationed at the now shuttered Kitsilano Coast Guard base is sitting empty with no crew at Sea Island base in Richmond. According to Moxey, only a rubber boat from the Coast Guard responded to the English Bay oil spill last night. Moxey also told us the Osprey formerly stationed at Kits was dismantled and sold off then when the base was closed. Moxey says if Kits Base was still active today crews would have been on scene at the spill in six minutes with the equipment to deal with the situation...”

****

Now.

Here's the real thing.

Why, as noted by longtime reader, and all-around trouble maker, Dana in the comments to this morning's first post, are we...

"...(A)ll being so polite and civil about the destruction of English Bay?..."

Why, indeed?


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Subheader?......This.


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English Bay Oil Spill Non-Responsiveness....The Polak Defense.

There you have it.

World class, indeed.

Interestingly, on Twittmachine thread Ms. Polak (and/or wizard and/or intern) then berates citizens for being upset with 'water v. land' dichotomy as a defense for non-action.

Rumour has it that Ms. Clark herself will drag herself away from her springiest of spring breaks to speak to the people of....errr...media @ 10:30am this morning.



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And kudos to reader Merv Adey for helping get the good Ms. Polak on the record with this thing.
Laila has a good post up on the lack of leadership in the response to this thing...


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This Day In HarperClarkland...But English Bay Is So Isolated And Hard To Get To.

AllTheLateContainmentThat
FitsVille


Well, well, well...

It turns out that, yes, it did take quite awhile to start getting that oil slick contained, for real.

The triple-headed hydra of Crawford, Sinoski and Morton from the VSun have the story:

VANCOUVER - Containment crews did not respond to an oil spill spreading in English Bay until three hours after it was first reported to authorities.

And it was significantly longer — 12 hours — before city officials were informed of the spill, believed to be toxic bunker fuel, which a pollution expert warned Thursday could linger in the marine environment for decades.

A sailor first reported the estimated kilometre-long oil slick to Port Metro Vancouver at about 5 p.m. but the coast guard didn’t begin to contain the area until 8 p.m. By 2 a.m. Thursday crews in five boats from private contractor West Coast Marine Response Corp. had set up a boom around the ship Marathassa, a bulk grain carrier that had arrived from Korea. They worked all night and into the next day to recover some of the heavier oil around the ship and try to pinpoint its source.

City officials, however, were not informed of the slick until 6 a.m. Thursday. They activated the emergency operations centre, called in Vancouver Police and Fire and Rescue marine units, as well as city staff and park rangers to monitor the shoreline, and biologists and wildlife experts to assess any risks to wildlife...

{snip}

...Canadian Coast Guard assistant commissioner Roger Girouard admitted late Thursday that the city should have been informed earlier. “I certainly think we have to review (the process). Our protocol was the conversation with Port Metro Vancouver and the province and our understanding was that they’d do the fan-out to the city. It was not our intent to leave the city in the blind.”

Girouard noted there was a “disconnect” between the time they found out about the spill and the time it took to get on board the ship, and that the ship might not even have known there was a problem...


Now.

Here is the real kicker...

...Rob O’Dea, the sailor who reported the spill, was out in English Bay at about 5 p.m. when he noticed a half-a-kilometre section of flat water amid the windswept waves. As he sailed closer, he realized the slick wasn’t just on the surface but deep beneath the water.

“There were thousands of block globules from the size of a pea up to a fist,” O’Dea said. “It wasn’t just an oily sheen.”

He called the coast guard, but noted there was not an emergency response on scene until at least an hour later when a harbour patrol boat appeared and went back and forth through the slick. By 8 p.m., he said, the slick still hadn’t been contained. Ironically, O’Dea added, the spill had occurred in sight of the now-closed coast guard station...


And why aren't we hearing more from the Coast Guard?

Well, apparently, at least according to NW's Shane Woodford, they aren't allowed to speak.

Gag us once, shame on them and all that...

****

Gosh.

Just who was it again that dismantled the Coast Guard base in English Bay?

And who couldn't really bring themselves to raise a sparkle pony-encrusted finger to stop it?

And if there was a real spill 'round here?

What would happen then, I wonder?


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And why, exactly, don't we have a Coast Guard base anymore, anyway?....Well, according to the official Harper government line it is to save $700K per year which would come under that old Rafeian maxim of how they (and their lickspittles) know the 'cost of everything and the value of nothing'...And the real reason?...Well, to the best of my knowledge the condolandjack hypothesis has not yet been disproven...After all, it's not as if such a landjacking has not occurred somewhere else in MetroVancouver recently...Right?



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