Cleaning up an oil spill

Cleaning up a marine oil spill is tricky business, and unfortunately we are unprepared to deal with a major spill in Canada. Our certified response organizations are not able to adequately deal with:

• vessel salvage should a ship be damaged or sink
• oiled wildlife rescue and rehabilitation
• managing a large group of oil spill cleanup workers
• storing and disposing recovered oil, among other things.

Even the Canadian Commissioner of Environment and Sustainable Development found that the emergency response plans of the Canadian Coast Guard and Environment Canada are not up to snuff.

For a more detailed description of our inability to deal with a spill, see Major Marine Vessel Casualty Risk and Response Preparedness in British Columbia.