Dear sir,

Re: ‘Pilotage pres says  spill chances nil’ (Sentinel, October 21), my first reaction was one of disbelief and disgust.  My second reaction that this must have been staged using actors.

Only a jester could make the statement the chance of a potential oil spill in the future is nil.

But than he retracted the statement somewhat by saying “there should never be an incident”.

I have to interpret “should” as not desirable but possible. 

Make up your mind Mr. Obermeyer.

 As the Northern Sentinel went to press the tank ship AEG Endeavor collided with the 820 foot Liberian flagged tanker Krymsk. As a result 68,140 liters of No. 6 bunker fuel was spilled.

Winds of 40 knots and 5 foot waves prevented any clean-up operation so the Coast Guard used dispersants dropped from airplanes. 

This collision happened 40 miles out of Galveston, Texas,  in the wide open Gulf of Mexico - no islands, no reefs.

Back to Douglas Channel.  On September 25 the merchant freighter Petersfield suffered an electrical steering malfunction and struck the shore of Maitland Island at a speed of 12 knots.

According to Mr. Obermeyer “the pilot made the right decision to ram the cliff straight on and minimize the damage.” 

Without steering how could the pilot have made the decision? 

At 12 knots the whole bow would have been pushed back into the hull not just sustained damage to the bulbous protrusion.

 Then there are statements by Mr. Crysler:  “An oil tanker is one of the easiest ships to navigate because everything is up to snuff.”

Does this mean we allow ships other than crude oil tanker into our waters were not everything is “up to snuff”?

Everybody can go onto a computer and find out how many mishaps occur every year with tankers,  how not everything is “up to snuff”, how even an entire bow has fallen off a tanker.

 Will the Chinese or Koreans charter tankers were everything is “up to snuff” or will they pick the ones with the lowest charter fees?

Does the Pilotage Authority or Canadian Coast Guard have any say in this?

Mr. Crysler:  “Identify potential safety measures needed along the channel such as lighthouses.”  For many years now the Coast Guard has shut down lighthouses. New technologies have made them obsolete.

 Mayor Monaghan is right in saying that Kitimat was “very fortunate” to have the group in town.  At least now we know what kind of bull these experts would present to the JRP  (Joint Review Panel). 

It makes a full public enquiry ever more important.

Dieter Wagner.