City Council Meeting 3/11/2013, STOP Toxic Tar Sands in Casco Bay

There will be a very important City Council Meeting where there will be a discussion of a possible tar sands oil pipeline in Maine leading into Casco Bay.

Your attendance is essential!

The City Council meeting will be:
Date: Monday, March 11, 2013
Time: 6:00 p.m.
Location: South Portland Community Center, 21 Nelson Road

As dog owners who bring our dogs to Willard Beach, Bug Light Park and many of the other open spaces Casco Bay has to offer we need to be concerned about toxic tar sands. Come to the meeting and show your opposition to the possible pipe line before it's too late!

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Please read more information below about tar sands oil, what it is, what it does and how it can create a natural disaster that Casco Bay would never fully recover from.

Special thanks to the Concerned South Portland Citizens for sending this information to SoPoDOG.

If you can't make the meeting please email your City Council Members. Their email addresses are at the end of this post. Thank you!

From the Concerned South Portland Citizens:

HELP PROTECT MAINE’S WATER, AIR, AND QUALITY OF LIFE FROM TAR SANDS

On Monday, March 11, please plan to attend the South Portland City Council’s meeting on a tar sands oil pipeline in your city. The meeting will be held at 6 p.m. at the SoPo Community Center at 21 Nelson Rd.

Exxon-Mobil and Enbridge Corp. are looking to pump tar sands oil via an aging pipeline from Montreal to South Portland, where it would be loaded onto tankers for export. This pipeline runs through Maine’s Lakes Region next to Sebago Lake, the drinking water supply for more than 15 percent of Maine people. It also crosses Crooked River, which feeds into Sebago Lake, six times. The pipeline’s terminus in South Portland additionally puts at risk Casco Bay and Maine’s fishing and tourism industries.

Soon after the BP Gulf oil spill, 1 million gallons of pipe lined tar sands oil spilled into Michigan’s Kalamazoo River. It still coats the bottom of that river—and likely always will, since there are no tools to clean up the submerged oil. After the Kalamazoo spill and the attempted cleanup, businesses in the area closed, residents relocated, and real estate values dropped. And the Kalamazoo River is not an isolated incident. We can never let this happen in Maine.

 WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT TAR SANDS OIL

Tar sand oil is known as as the “dirtiest” oil source on the planet, with a 20 percent greater carbon footprint than regular crude oil.

Tar sand is 85 percent clay and sand, 5 percent water, and 10 percent oil. It is 40 to 70 percent thicker than crude oil. This tar-like, acidic and abrasive substance must be diluted to move through the pipeline. The resulting tar sands oil, saturated with such toxins as Benzene, is then pumped under very high pressure, which heats the pipeline to 300 degrees F and increases the chances of pipe failure and spills.

Before the the tar sands oil leaves South Portland in tankers, the chemicals injected into them for transport through the pipeline have to be burned off. This would entail building two 70-foot smokestacks at South Portland’s Pier #2 and releasing hazardous gases into the air around Casco Bay.

The pipeline is 62 years old. Moving abrasive and corrosive tar sands through these old pipes under high pressure makes spills — and the chance of contaminating Maine’s water — highly likely.

When tar sand oil spills, it sinks into riverbeds and lake bottoms, making cleanup almost impossible.

On March 11, the South Portland City Council will start to consider the tar sands oil issue.

Representatives of the Natural Resources Council, Environment Maine, Enbridge Corporation and the oil industry will present pros and cons to the Mayor and City Council. Residents of South Portland and members of the City Council will speak after the presentations.

South Portland is the one municipality in Maine that has the authority to block the project, so the stakes are really high. We need to pack the room with tar sand opponents to stop Exxon-Mobil’s tar sand pipeline through Maine.

We hope to see you there!

- Concerned South Portland Citizens

Please email your City Council members:

Tom Blake, Mayor:  Tblake@southportland.org

Patti Smith:  Psmith@southportland.org

Melissa Linscott:  mlinscott@southportland.org
Linda C. Cohen:  Lcohen@southportland.org
Gerard "Jerry" Jalbert:  jjalbert@southportland.org
Alan Livingston:  alivingston@southportland.org

Thank you!