Why this story is on the current news-ticker with a date of January 26th, I have no idea but here it is. http://www.canoe.ca/WesternTicker/CANOE-wire.Pipeline-Leak.html

January 26, 2000
Central Albertans fuming after not being notified for hours about sour gas leak

RED DEER, Alta. (CP) -- A cloud of potentially deadly hydrogen sulphide gas was accidentally released into the air near two aboriginal reserves in central Alberta on Wednesday.

Residents, who had burning eyes and queasy stomachs, said they didn't find out about the sour gas leak until hours later.

"It's just incompetent," said Chief Danny Bradshaw of the O'Chiese First Nation, 130 kilometres southwest of Edmonton.

The pipeline, which runs between the O'Chiese and Sunchild reserves, ruptured about 9 a.m. during routine cleaning, said Tony Lentini of Houston-based Apache Corp., which maintains the pipeline.

Residents, who live four kilometres from the pipeline, had no reason to be alarmed, he said.

"I think we went the extra mile by telling the neighbours even though they were outside the safety radius," Lentini said.

The employee cleaning the pipe wasn't injured and quickly put on protective cleaning gear and shut off the pipeline, Lentini said. The gas "will kill you if you breathe it," he added.

The pipeline is owned by Calgary-based North American Life Resources and operates on land leased by PanCanadian Petroleum Ltd.

Leaders on the reserves were angry about how the leak was handled. Melvin Goodrunning, a Sunchild band councillor, wants oil and gas activity shut down in the area until energy companies devise a plan that doesn't take hours to kick in.

"We want a moratorium on this," Goodrunning said. "I'm not going to let this one go by."

A westerly wind pushed the acrid gas toward the communities, causing residents' eyes to tear and their stomachs to ache.

Parents of children in the communities' two schools frantically tried to get some information, but received little or no facts. Students stayed at school.

"I'm very worried because I'm the person who is to answer to my people and I couldn't do that," Goodrunning said.

Officials from both bands said it took hours to get any information about the incident.

Goodrunning said his 750-member band was contacted by Apache after 11 a.m., while Bradshaw said the company reached his 600-member band shortly after noon.

"They should have informed people so they wouldn't have panicked," said Bradshaw.

Apache officials said they didn't neglect the communities. "I don't think that that's a long period of time in which to contact someone," said J.C. Ridens, Apache's regional production manager. "We had monitored the situation, shut the well off and knew we had contained everything. That was a courtesy."

Officials from Apache and NAL Resources said they will meet with band officials today to try to resolve concerns.

The Alberta Energy and Utilities Board said it will order a report from the company. The bands pointed out this isn't the first time they have had to deal with pipeline problems.

Last February, a Nova Gas Transmission Ltd. pipeline exploded, sending a giant red mushroom cloud into the sky. The pipe was cracked, caused by stress, corrosion and soil conditions, the board concluded.

-- Steve Baxter (chicoqh@home.com), February 03, 2000

Answers

---that's just a mild taste of what the multinationals do to people outside the north american continent, check out what's been going on in nigeria. the globalists creep closer...

-- zog (zzoggy@yahoo.com), February 03, 2000.