Canada has no one comprehensive map showing pipelines, as does the United States with its National Pipeline Mapping System. That system allows citizens to search by operator, pipeline name or even the status of the pipeline and whether it is in service or has been abandoned.
US activist “shocked” a lack of information in Canada
“I was kind of shocked how little there is available in Canada,” says Carl Weimer, executive director of Pipeline Safety Trust in Bellingham, Wash., a non-profit group focused on improving pipeline safety.
Canada’s National Energy Board (NEB) oversees about one tenths of all pipeline networks. The rest are monitored by provincial governments. One can consult the NEB site but it is “a confusing labyrinth” that goes in circles, says Dan Hacault, a farmer in the central province of Manitoba.
Senate recommended a map be produced
The NEB and Canada’s Transportation Safety Board, another body that probes pipeline issues, should give the public more detailed information about safety issues, recommended an energy committee of the Senate last August. It called for regulators to produce an interactive map describing spill amounts and what caused them.
The NEB says it will consult with Canadians about “what it is they need and how to get it to them.”
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