Puget Sound tanker traffic thickens as Canadian pipeline boosts oil flow

A 750-foot-long oil tanker and its high-powered escort tug started motoring west from a pipeline terminal near Vancouver, British Columbia, Wednesday afternoon.

The Liberian-flagged tanker, called the New Activity, was hauling crude oil from Alberta to California. In addition to the ship’s captain, a Canadian marine pilot was at the helm to guide the big ship through potentially tricky waters.

The New Activity exited Vancouver’s Inner Harbour, then turned south, crossing the invisible U.S. border around sunset off Washington's Point Roberts, according to tracking data from MarineTraffic.com.

For the next 10 hours, the New Activity traced the zigzagging international border. Just before sunrise on Thursday, having dropped off the local pilot near Victoria, the New Activity reached the mouth of the Strait of Juan de Fuca and headed for California, leaving its escort tug behind.

The activity itself wasn’t new — tankers have been ferrying fossil fuels through the island-studded Salish Sea for decades — but the amount of it is.

The New Activity’s voyage is part of a surge of tanker traffic in Washington and British Columbia since the Trans Mountain Pipeline from Alberta to Burnaby, British Columbia, nearly tripled its capacity in May.

Since June, Trans Mountain has reported delivering Alberta crude to at least 20 tankers per month at its Burnaby terminal, up from an average of four per month from January through April. The company expects to deliver oil to 25 tankers in September.

RELATED: Washington’s border waters are on the cusp of a major rise in oil tanker traffic

Few of the tankers from Canada are headed to Washington ports, such as the Phillips 66 refinery in Ferndale. But all the tankers wind their way at least partly through Washington waters. And any noise or oil spilling from a tanker can easily cross the 125-mile-long maritime border between Washington and British Columbia.

“We have seen an increase in tankers — it seems like there is always one or more in view when we are in the water with whales,” San Juan Island-based orca researcher Deborah Giles with Wild Orca said by text message.

Oil spills and noise pollution from ships are both potential threats to the region’s endangered orcas.

The overall tanker volume in recent months on the shared international waterway known as the Salish Sea was not available by KUOW’s deadline. But sources contacted by KUOW all agreed oil transport on the Salish Sea has jumped.

“There's certainly more activity as compared to last year,” said Patrick Gallagher, head of the Marine Exchange of Puget Sound, a maritime-industry trade association that tracks vessel traffic in Washington waters.

“Even prior to May, our oil moves were up. Our tanker moves were up, and we're still not quite sure why,” Puget Sound Pilots president Ivan Carlson said.

Carlson said the pilots, who guide big ships into and out of ports on Puget Sound, have seen a drop in cargo work and an increase in oil-tanker assignments.

“Last year was the first year there were more tanker moves than there were container vessel moves, and this year is going to remain that way,” Carlson said.

In British Columbia, environmental advocates and the provincial government, which opposed the pipeline’s construction, are urging Transport Canada to boost safety precautions to handle the greater volumes of oil passing over Canadian waters, the CBC reports.

Representatives of pipeline owner Trans Mountain say the company invested $150 million CAD in British Columbia’s oil spill response bases, vessels, and personnel in anticipation of the pipeline expansion.

“Trans Mountain has a long record of safe and reliable operations of our pipeline and facilities. We are committed to maintaining that record,” Trans Mountain spokesperson Nathan Thompson said by email.

Officials in Washington defended the state’s oil-spill safety systems.

“Ecology’s spill prevention, preparedness, and response regulations and capabilities have not changed. Our rules are designed to ensure every vessel in Washington waters is ready to respond in case they have a spill,” Washington Department of Ecology spokesperson Jasmin Adams said by email.

While the Ecology department requires oil shippers to prove they have funds or insurance to pay for oil spill cleanups, environmental groups in Washington say the financial requirements are insufficient for cleaning major spills, which can cost billions.

The groups have also long called for an emergency-response boat to be stationed in the northern San Juan Islands. Tankers full of oil, like the New Activity, are required to have escort tugs, but they are not required to do so when they arrive empty.

“The completion of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project heightens the need,” Lovel Pratt with Friends of the San Juans said by email.

“The mitigation and prevention plans are very robust. It's well thought out,” said Patrick Gallagher with the Marine Exchange. “There are so many safety mitigation measures. I can't even think of another mitigation measure that they could take. And the volume of traffic is not unprecedented.”

Gallagher said, 20 years ago, more tankers plied Puget Sound than do today, with no major spills.

One difference in 2024: The heavy Alberta crude being transported now can sink to the sea floor and be much harder to clean up than oil that floats.