Attention Captain Obermeyer: Stop These Oil Tankers!

Letter to Captain Kevin Obermeyer, CEO of the Pacific Pilotage Authority, Responsible for all shipping plying the BC Coast

by Ingmar Lee - 10,000 Ton Tanker

Hello Kevin; I have written a short note to your new boss, federal Transport Minister Marc Garneau regarding the ever-growing swarm of USA ATB's and tow barges carrying petroleum products between Alaska and Washington via the entire BC Coast Inside Passage, but I recognize he will need some time to clear out all the Big Oil-lackey corruption that so previously defiled his office, so I am patiently awaiting a reply.

Nevertheless I am hopeful that he will see the importance of getting this dangerous, risky traffic out of the Salish Sea, Johnstone and Hecate Straits, and the "protected" waterways of the Inside Passage, - and make it go out through Juan de Fuca and 20 miles offshore where it belongs with all the other tanker traffic.

I am hopeful that Transport Minister Garneau will see it as reasonable that this dangerous, risky, entirely American business, will upgrade their tanker fleet so that they may safely travel offshore to their Alaska customers and stop threatening these precious waters.

I'm hoping that he will see that this business offers utterly nothing whatsoever of benefit to Canada, - no jobs, - not even a single BC Pilot's job -, no tariff, no duty, no remuneration of any kind, no service at all to a single one of the BC coastal communities it passes, no First Nation's protocol permission, - nothing at all but the dreadful risk of imminent ecological disaster.

I am hoping that he will agree that it is outrageous that even the goods that this traffic is transporting is kept secret, - so secret that even you, the senior person responsible for all shipping on the BC coast has to wait on bended knee for three weeks to get that information, as happened earlier this year.

Actually, - and speaking on behalf of a rapidly increasing number of concerned coastal residents, we are DONE with hoping, we are expecting, - nay DEMANDING - big, immediate changes.

Please do something with your power and responsibility over this coast, to help us help Minister Garneau get this scourge out of the precious, "protected" waters of the BC Inside Passage.

Sincerely, Ingmar