The 2,700-litre fuel spill from the vessel M/V Marathassa in English Bay April 8 has Vancouverites worried, especially in light of Kinder Morgan's proposed plan to expand the existing pipeline and increase oil tanker traffic in order to ship crude oil from Burnaby to foreign markets.
Residents says they're concerned about the future of the city's waterways and the environment.
Grace Mills-Hodgeins: "I definitely don't want spills in our harbour and whatnot. We've got enough pollution without adding something that dangerous to it. Yes, I worry about that. We're sitting on a lovely little jewel here and the idea of destroying it is really troublesome."
Kim-marah Olausen: "They're not building a trust fund for Canadians. All that money they have that's coming into pipelines and things like that doesn't come to us. We don't benefit from it in any programs ... it's all profiteering and damaging to our Canadian way."
Donna Mackinnon: "We have to be vigilant and all speak up against the pipeline. Our democracy is being eroded by the government's pandering to industry. We can't believe what the industry says about spills. This, I hope, will incite more people to become active and speak up against it."
Ron Zanni: "Hopefully, it doesn't happen again. It wakes people up. Just like the earthquake that's coming. Nobody's concerned about it 'til it's going to happen. Then you'll see oil."
Lucie: "It's kind of crazy that there wasn't a whole lot of publicity about it. And definitely more attention to immediately deal with it. The reality is that once that damage happens in the water, and it doesn't get dealt with immediately, it's very, very hard to go back and recover and so all the wildlife and fish and everything. It's going to be very hard to bring it back to health again."
Robert Janning: "[I'm] trying to look at this in a positive light. Hopefully, there's some kind of silver lining to this. Maybe in regards to the proposed pipelines, this is a warning of what can go wrong. We're privileged and blessed to have what we have but it's up to us to protect it."
