Three North Shore governments, two First Nations and two citizens groups received the OK to address the National Energy Board before it makes a decision on Kinder Morgan's application to nearly triple the capacity of its Trans Mountain pipeline to Burrard Inlet.
The NEB released its list of just roughly 400 people and groups granted intervener status at the hearings, which are scheduled to start in the fall of 2015.
Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations join the City and District of North Vancouver, the District of West Vancouver, environmental groups T. Buck Suzuki Environmental Foundation and North Shore No Pipeline Expansion and private citizens Brahm Miller and Tarah Stafford.
Several other B.C. First Nations are represented by Lower Lonsdale law firm Ratcliff & Co., which specializes in Aboriginal law.
While other groups on the list plan to speak about environmental and climate change risks posed by pipeline expansion, NOPE founder and Deep Cove resident Janice Edmonds said her group will focus on the risk posed to human health, should there be a spill of diluted bitumen, either from a tanker or at the Westridge terminal in Burnaby.
"When people think about the spill, they think about the environment. Everybody can visualize the oil on the beach and the ducks and all of that but they're not thinking about the evaporation of those chemicals that are coming off the diluted bitumen."
Because of the local climate conditions, chemicals in a spill, like benzene and hydrogen sulfide, would become trapped under denser air above, leaving the toxic pollution stuck in the airshed, Edmonds said.
To assist in their submission to the board, NOPE has hired a Simon Fraser University professor with degrees in medicine, epidemiology and toxicology as well as a data scientist to do a probability analysis of the likelihood of a spill, using the data in Kinder Morgan's application.
"Most people are not aware of the risks. The risks are absolutely enormous," Edmonds said.
The federal government has put up money that interveners can apply for to fund their expert submissions, though Edmonds said her group does not know how much support it may receive.
"We don't want to be a real radical kind of group. We want to educate and inform and find out the real truth about these pipelines. We believe this is not the right thing to do," she said about bringing another, bigger pipeline through the most populated area in Western Canada.
The three local governments are now doing research to frame up their submission, including cost estimates.
This Saturday, North Shore NOPE members are sending protesters in a flotilla of canoes and kayaks to join an event in Burnaby. They are gathering at Cates Park between 1 and 2 p.m., with the lead Tsleil-Waututh canoe departing for Burnaby at 2:30 p.m. If Kinder Morgan's application is approved, the existing Trans Mountain pipeline will be twinned with a larger pipe running along roughly the same path.
Total capacity of the pipeline will be 890,000 barrels per day, resulting in about 34 aframax oil tankers being loaded and traversing the Burrard Inlet per month.
