Comments on: Whistleblogging?

Whistleblogging?

angrybeaver — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 01:11:21 -0800

Oil spill in northern British.Columbia, nobody reports it.

By: b1tr0t

b1tr0t — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 01:19:37 -0800

Better Link and more detail: The company I work for has been contracted to clean up an unreported (until now) oil spill near a large oil plant (It takes in oil from a bunch of wells, compresses it, and feeds into the larger pipeline network. So, the spill seems to have been unreported for quite some time...

By: stavrosthewonderchicken

stavrosthewonderchicken — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 01:32:22 -0800

[this is bad], but typical. Anecdote: many (many) years ago when my family owned a half-section up there in the same area, on which a MAJOR OIL COMPANY OMIGOD (and don't get me wrong, I'd be thrilled to micturate copiously on their graves) had a few wells (and paid us for the access rights), there was a way bigger spill than the one talked about here. Killed a lot of trees. Dad took 'em to court. Took a long time, but he lost big, thanks mainly to incompetent small-town counsel. Went a bit bonkers, died of a massive heart attack not long after. He never did listen to me when I told him to take it to the media. Ah well.

By: elpapacito

elpapacito — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 03:35:07 -0800

They exposed workers to benzene for 19 hours? Bad bad idea as it is "a known carcinogen" and the list is even more damning

By: slatternus

slatternus — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 06:42:01 -0800

Exposure to benzene for any length of time is a bad bad idea. I don't think there's much hope for those workers.

By: dobie

dobie — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 06:54:42 -0800

You know, I'm starting to think that Chavez is onto something with his state run oil company.

By: Zozo

Zozo — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 07:53:56 -0800

Eponysterical.

By: Vindaloo

Vindaloo — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 07:59:59 -0800

I just reported the story to the Montreal Gazette, we'll see if it gets picked up.

By: meringue

meringue — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 08:14:35 -0800

I'm not surprised that the Canadian media hasn't picked this up... they're too busy not reporting how the budget passed through the Commons without anyone noticing. A little oil spill? Hey, look, terrorists!

By: sergeant sandwich

sergeant sandwich — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 09:25:34 -0800

you've got to be kidding me. a leaky oil tank somewhere remote makes a spill a few hundred square feet across that it takes 4 college-age dudes to clean up and you expect it to get picked up by national news agencies? this is not the exxon valdez here. i'd be surprised if you couldn't fit this amount of oil into the back of a pickup truck. i mean - illegal? sure. should get reported? sure. should make national headlines? hardly.

By: b1tr0t

b1tr0t — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 11:32:08 -0800

You know, I'm starting to think that Chavez is onto something with his state run oil company. When an oil spill like this happens in Venezuela, who do you turn to?

By: hattifattener

hattifattener — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 11:32:50 -0800

Benzine's not that bad, guys. Toxic and carcinogenic? yes. Should assiduously avoid any exposure? yes. Should the company have provided protection for its workers? yes. Are these guys likely to have any actual long-term effects? no.

By: dobie

dobie — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 11:41:07 -0800

When an oil spill like this happens in Venezuela, who do you turn to? I think that a state owned and run oil company is considerably more likely to take an interest in cleaning up spills than a foreign run super-mega-global-corp.

By: George_Spiggott

George_Spiggott — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 15:30:20 -0800

I think that a state owned and run oil company is considerably more likely to take an interest in cleaning up spills than a foreign run super-mega-global-corp. Try telling that to the people who live near the literally tens of thousands of abandoned, untreated, uncontained toxic waste sites in the former Soviet Bloc.

By: dobie

dobie — Fri, 09 Jun 2006 11:30:29 -0800

I probably should have specifically said that I think that the province of British Columbia, which has a fairly prominent environmentalist movement, would probably better run it's natural resources than super-mega-global-corp. Thank you for reminding me never to use general statements.

By: solid-one-love

solid-one-love — Mon, 12 Jun 2006 10:53:19 -0800

This isn't an 'oil spill'; it's a botched remediation. Happens every day in Canada. Absolutely not newsworthy.