Equipment demonstrations confirm Enbridge’s commitment to communities
David Zayonce prides himself on knowing the value of a dollar.
Or, to put it another way . . .
“I’m naturally cheap,” he says with a grin, “so I know this is a heck of an investment, just on emergency response infrastructure alone.”
Zayonce, the director of emergency management for Camrose County in east-central Alberta, was reflecting on a recent emergency response “show and tell” put on by Enbridge in Adrossan, AB.
The event, staged for emergency responders in the area, included a display of Enbridge’s tactical equipment, which would be used in the unlikely event of a pipeline incident, and an explanation of our regionally tailored emergency response action plans.
“I have a lot of admiration for Enbridge. I know the company’s very responsible, and not doing this for aesthetics,” says Zayonce. “Enbridge takes those extra steps and does more than just what’s required by law or regulators.
“I’ve looked at Enbridge’s emergency response plan online, I’ve been invited to give feedback on it, and I know where all of Enbridge’s infrastructure is in our county,” he adds. “I feel like Enbridge goes above and beyond.”
In recent months, Enbridge has hosted or co-hosted a number of emergency response equipment demonstration events across Canada for first responders and the public—early May in Sarnia, ON, and Toronto; early June in Mirabel, QC; mid-June in South Stormont, ON—with more of these events scheduled for this summer and fall across Alberta.
Since 2012, we’ve invested and deployed more than $57 million in new response equipment, from boom to boat to skimmer systems, across Enbridge’s North American operations.
Scott Ritzer, a Sherwood Park, AB-based emergency response coordinator with Enbridge, says this series of showcase events is intended to convey Enbridge’s spill response programs and capacity—but also notes that this is only one aspect of our multi-faceted approach to safety, which focuses primarily on prevention.
“In the case of an emergency, we are prepared to take action,” says Ritzer. “These equipment demos are a way of reaffirming our commitment as a community partner, as well as our transparency around emergency response.”
Enbridge equipment on display at Ardrossan included:
- A mobile incident command post, running real-time incident management software;
- A decontamination trailer;
- A 22-foot response boat;
- A utility task vehicle (UTV), or side-by-side;
- An emergency response trailer with containment, protection and absorption boom; and
- A hovercraft for all-terrain response.
“That’s a new tool that we purchased for our Western Region late last year,” says Ritzer. “It can go anywhere, from water to ice to ground to grass to snow, and traverse water and land at the same time.”
(TOP PHOTO: Enbridge has invested and deployed more than $57 million in new response equipment, from boom to boat to skimmer systems, across our North American operations.)
