Hello data
Title 1
Category Archives: Carleton assignments
Pipeline Leaks Increase Over Last Decade, Set to Rise Again
Pipeline leaks in federally-regulated pipelines rose sharply in the last decade, an analysis of Transportation Safety Board data shows. According to the TSB’s data, the spills have increased by more than double between 2004 and 2013. Data from 2014 also shows reported occurrences at pipelines are on track to surpass 2013 levels.
Overwhelmingly, when there is an incident, it is highly likely that it will also mean “release of product,” or a leak. On average, 87% of the incidents recorded caused a leak. Similarly, incidents with a leak usually means an uncontained release. On average, a whopping 97% of incidents with a leak were “uncontained.” In both 2005 and 2006, every single incident with a leak was uncontained.
In 2013, there was a sharp drop, but 2014 is likely to surpass that. From January to October, the same number of incidents have been reported, with still two months of data to report.
Transportation Safety Board Manager of Pipeline Operations Manuel Kotchounian says the increase is the result of a new 2009 pipeline and recent conversions. “More kilometres [of pipeline] means more potential issues,” he says. But that’s not all; there is also a difference in the way new and modified pipelines are monitored in their first few years, which Kotchounian says also contributes to the spike between 2009 and 2012. “New pipelines tend to have a lot of attention focused on them… when a pipeline is being watched very closely, a lot of leaks are found,” Kotchounian says. “The more inspections, the more issues.” The TSB’s 2013 report on pipeline occurrences gives a similar hypothesis for the marked decrease in 2013: “The decreasing trend may in part be accounted for by the decrease in the number of minor incidents for pipeline facilities that had recently been started up or converted (e.g., from a gas pipeline to an oil pipeline). In general, after an initial start-up phase, the number of minor incidents will decrease and stabilize.” Currently, there are several proposed new pipelines that could be built in coming years, including TransCanada’s Keystone XL, TransCanada’s Energy East, and Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline, which has seen regular protests from anti-pipeline groups as it prepares for the approval process. Additionally, Enbridge is considering a reversal of its Line 9, in order to bring Albertan crude through Quebec for export on the East Coast. If these new projects are realized, many new incidents can be expected. Ben West, Tar Sands Campaign Director at ForestEthics Advocacy, a US-based environmentalist group that has vigourously opposed the Trans Mountain and Northern Gateway pipelines, says there is just no guarantee that any new pipelines can be monitored to ensure there are no leaks. “If you look at any pipeline in North America, they all have a number of spills associated with them over the years; some are bigger, some are smaller, but of course if you live close to one of those spills, even a small one is significant,” he says. “So at the end of the day I don’t have a tremendous amount of faith that anybody can promise to build a pipeline that will never leak, when all it takes is one serious incident to have serious implications.” West says that instead of building new pipelines with higher standards such as those proposed, the standards should be applied to the existing infrastructure that is “out of sight, out of mind, until something goes wrong.”
2014 CAPP Crude Oil Pipeline and Refinery Map 11x 17 (Text)
This data only covers pipelines regulated by the TSB, which are any pipelines that cross provincial or international borders. All other pipelines are provincially regulated. Any pipeline that is regulated by the TSB is also regulated by the National Energy Board, using different criteria. The two federal bodies collect, record, and publish data separately. Comparing data recorded between the two “would be comparing apples and oranges,” Kotchounian says. “The National Energy Board has slightly different definitions of what is reportable. What this means is that you can’t reconcile data from different organizations,” he says. Comparing either of their data to, say, Alberta’s occurrence data “wouldn’t make sense.” In October 2013, CBC News published NEB documents obtained through access to information that showed where incidents happened, and that they had doubled within 12 years. Kotchounian says the NEP definition of “incident” includes much smaller issues, because they are the actual regulator. TSB, on the other hand, has a mandate to promote safety across the board. “We’re only involved when there is an accident,” he says. An “accident” is usually a larger “big explosion or big fire,” Kotchounian says. These have remained steady throughout the last decade, at only a handful per year. But shouldn’t the data be harmonized? “In theory, they should be. But once you get into the nitty gritty, each jurisdiction has a different need for the data,” he says. The TSB is currently in transition with their data collection. Since July 2014, they adopted the policy that any occurrence, no matter how big or small, is recorded as one statistic. But they are still recording both “accidents” and “incidents” as of October 2014. “It’s kind of a grey area,” Kotchounian admits.
The Canadian Energy Pipeline Association says its members, which include all of the major operators in Canada, commit $1.5 billion annually to promote safety. CEPA could not respond to questions about pipeline safety by publication time. West says that overall, the Harper government has shown to be on the side of the pipeline operators and oil producers, whether in rhetoric or in regulation. “I think by and large we’ve seen more of a sales pitch than a genuine discussion [on the issue of building new pipelines],” West says. He and other environmentalists are adamant that the overall problem is climate change and the need to reduce consumption. This is the main reason – more than any individual leak – that his organization, ForestEthics, opposes Northern Gateway and Trans Mountain. They are currently involved in a law suit against the federal government and the NEB, arguing that the changes to NEB consultation infringes on section 2 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Whether a regulatory body or a Member of Parliament, West believes that ultimately all areas of the federal government are reflecting the pro-pipeline view of Stephen Harper. “In the federal government, all roads lead to the Prime Ministers Office.”
Tutorials from King’s research methods course
Impaired driving increase insignificant, Ottawa Police say
Impaired driving is down overall in the city, except for an upswing in the Capital ward.
Overall impaired driving charges went down four percent, but three wards saw a spike in 2013: Capital, Stittsville Kanata-West, and Knoxdale-Merivale, according to data from the Ottawa Police Service.
Capital ward saw 37 charges of impaired vehicle operation in 2014, compared to 25 in 2013. Capital ward includes Old Ottawa South, Carleton University, and the Glebe.
Capital ward residents have not noticed there was an increase in impaired driving in their neighborhood, said ward councilor David Chernushenko.
Chernushenko spoke at a community event held at O’Briens pub at Heron rd., sipping his “one allowed beer” of the evening.
He said that being conscious of alcohol intake is essential and that impaired driving of any kind is a serious hazard to everyone.
“Any distraction, from using your cell phone, to drinking coffee to eating an ice cream, all of these things when done while driving – in a sense, they can turn your car into a weapon,” he said.
The increase in Capital Ward and other wards does not mean that impaired driving is rampant in the area, said Sgt. John Kiss.
“That’s only one extra charge per month,” he said. The increase could be because the officers patrolling that neighborhood target certain kinds of crime more than others.
“There are all kinds of officers who like to concentrate on different aspects of policing. There are some that like to chase crack heads, there are some that like to chase stolen cars,” he said. “One extra arrest per month is not a significant number for one officer to do if he’s out there every night looking for impaired drivers.”
Kiss said there has been a general decline in impaired driving across Canada over the last twenty years, according to Statistics Canada’s latest Juristats report, which lists Police-reported crime statistics.
“But that’s a general shift in society and has been over the last couple of decades because of changes in social norms, education and the media,” he said.
“The numbers are down in general, but what causes that could be a number of factors…it could also be the results of officers being too busy to enforce it and not getting the arrest or the charges.”
November marks the beginning of “the bulk” of the police’s impaired driving enforcement, which will last until January, he said. But contrary to common belief, there aren’t more drunk drivers on the road during Christmas party season.
“We do that because there are a lot of parties going on, but most of all we do that because we really want to avoid a tragedy over the holidays. So we’re out there doing our thing and thankfully the last couple of years we’ve been tragedy-free over the holidays,” he said.
More Marijuana Charges in Rideau-Vanier than Next Five Wards Combined
Police laid more marijuana charges on people in Rideau-Vanier Ward than the next five wards combined in 2013, according to an analysis of Ottawa police crime data.
The number of marijuana charges in Rideau-Vanier totaled 302, more than four and a half times as many as the next largest ward, Capital, with only 67 charges laid. Adjusted for population sizes, Rideau-Vanier has a rate of 6.3 charges laid per capita, while Capital’s rate sits at 1.8 charges laid per capita.
The Ottawa Police declined to comment, presumably due to a backlog after Wednesday’s War Memorial shooting and subsequent investigation.
One marijuana activist thinks people in Rideau-Vanier are unfairly targeted. Russell Barth, an Ottawa-based marijuana legalization activist, says police must be targeting youth, minorities, and low income.
“If you are poor, you are much more likely to be stopped by police. If you’re a rich white kid, you’ll never have a problem,” Barth says. Barth contends that low-level possession charges leave people with a criminal record, doing more harm than good. The Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police agree with this.
“I think any cop that has nothing better to do than give a 15 year old kid a ticket for possessing marijuana is incompetent, and should lose their badge,” Barth says.
However, 2011 census data reveals Rideau-Vanier’s youth between ages 15-29 make up nearly 30% of the population, well over the Ottawa percentage (21%) but only marginally larger than Capital Ward (over 26%).
According to 2006 census data,the most recent municipal data with ethnic statistics by ward, 26.8% of the population of Rideau-Vanier is a visible minority. Somerset, with a fraction of the marijuana charges laid, has 31.0% visible minority. In Capital Ward, the ward with the second-highest number of charges, 21.9% of the population was made up of visible minorities.
Eugene Oscapella, lawyer and criminology professor, does not jump to that assumption so fast. Oscapella lectures at the University of Ottawa, and in 2011 was awarded the Kaiser Foundation National Award for Excellence in Public Policy for his research on drug policy reform.
“Since it is ‘charges laid’ [and not simply ‘police incidents’] police discretion factors in,” Oscapella says.
“Are police more willing to charge people in problem areas? Is there a preference for people to be charged more often in poor areas? Or vice-versa, it could be that police see a well-off person and try to throw the book at them.
“These are the sort of questions you need to ask; Are police using their discretion in a way that people with certain characteristics over others? Police have a broad discretion… they might see a well-dressed, polite person, maybe they have the “right” skin colour, and they decide to let [that person] go.”
But Oscapella did not rule racial profiling out, noting that the United States as a “racial dimension” to petty crime. He says Ottawa needs to ask itself if it does too.
“Probably,” he says. “It’s hard to say but I wouldn’t be surprised if there was.”
In 2010, University of Montreal sociologist Chistopher McAll released a report finding that the arrest rate was double for black teens than white teens. Citing 2001 drug charges, he found that black teens caught smoking marijuana faced charges while there was not a single white teen charged with marijuana possession. The study prompted hearings from the Quebec Human Rights Commission and a damning internal study by Montreal police.
However, the Ottawa data do not distinguish between the three types of marijuana charges police lay: possession, possession for the purpose of trafficking (over 30 grams), and marijuana production (grow-ops). Oscapella says that makes it very difficult to distinguish how the charges are being laid, and therefore draw concrete conclusions.
Oscapella says that questions need to be asked about how the Ottawa Police use their discretion to lay charges.
“Sometimes they target certain areas… especially if crimes are more visible,” he says. “It’s possible police spend more resources targeting [Rideau-Vanier] because it has high instances of other crimes. If you have more people looking for something, you’re going to end up with more charges.”
Rideau-Vanier Councillor Mathieu Fleury, facing a municipal election Monday where crime in the ward has been a major campaign issue, could not be reached for comment.
Top 5 contaminated sites to be assessed
Discarded Syringes in Ottawa Wards
Syringes Per Ward Count in Tableau
Petrie Island has most ‘No Swim Days’ of Ottawa Beaches
Petrie Island’s River Beach was most likely to have unhealthy numbers of E.coli bacteria this summer than other beaches operated by the city of Ottawa.
River Beach in Orleans was found to have E.coli levels deemed unhealthy for 12 days this summer, according to data recorded by Ottawa Public Health.
This also means the city issued more ‘no swim advisories’ for River Beach than any other beach.
Swimming in water contaminated with E.coli can cause rashes, stomach problems, and make cuts and scrapes become infected.
It is difficult to pinpoint why the beach had high bacteria counts, as animal waste, heavy rain, or simply being downstream of Ottawa’s urban centre could all play a factor, said Martha Robinson, program development officer at Ottawa Public Health.
E.coli levels exceeded the recommended level 11 days in 2013, the second highest of all the beaches, Robinson said.
Britannia Bay had the lowest bacterial count of all the beaches, as the beach did not have a single day where the E.coli count was over the federal standard of 200 per 100 ml of water.
E.coli counts were also much lower at East Bay, the other beach on Petrie Island, which recorded at total of five days over the limit.
The city samples the water of all five of its beaches everyday from June 20 until Aug. 16. When the previous day’s E.coli counts exceed 200 per 100 ml of water, the city issues a no swim advisory.
The two biggest threats to a beach’s water quality are rainfall and birds, Robinson said. Bird feces can contaminate the water, while rain can make waste run into into the river.
Not all of Ottawa’s five beaches have mechanisms to prevent birds and waste runoffs due rain from contaminating the water.
“Westboro doesn’t have anything,” she said.
“Petrie Island has tried a variety of things to discourage birds over the years,” she said. Some, like keeping dogs on the beach and spreading foul-smelling fertilizer onto the grass have not scared away the geese at all.
Others have been more effective. The beach got a drone to scare away birds twice a day in 2013, Robertson said.
The city stops monitoring water quality and staffing beaches in mid-August, but three days of high temperatures has led some Orleans residents to let summer go on a little longer, as people were still tanning at River Beach in late September.
Moreen Dodd said she comes to Petrie Island often to read or relax with friends, but she never goes into the water.
“I don’t swim because of the bacteria,” she said. “A friend of mine once got a really bad infection after swimming in the river. It lasted months and just wouldn’t heal.”
Sisters Stacey and Melanie Campbell said they come to the beach about once or twice a week, to go swimming with Stacey’s five and six-year-old.
As long the city has declared the water safe for swimming, Stacey said she loves to splash around with her kids.
“It’s really nice. You can look at the sky, the forests, the Gatineau airport across the river. Sometimes you can see air shows,” she said.
She does take some precautions. Her kids are not allowed in the water if they have a cut or a bug bite, she said. She also wipes their arms, legs and torsos with a towel very thoroughly to prevent swimmer’s itch.
test post
test post