Tar sands oil

To the Editor:

Living in Maine, I am concerned and a little scared. Tar sands oil running from Montreal to Portland through our communities and near our rivers worries me.

Pipelines have issues: the current pipeline is old (some say beyond life expectancy); it is not buried deeply as it was laid when this was not required; and it is the cheapest way to transport large quantities of a liquid.

Tar sands oil is worse: more abrasive than regular crude oil; requires more pressure and/or heat to pump; and often has very corrosive, flammable and/or explosive chemicals or gases added to dilute it for pumping.

Some of these must be burned off before the product is put onto a ship adding pollutants to the air.

Few (if any) benefits to our communities are added by reversing the current pipe's direction and pumping this material: the towns passed through will not see any increase in tax revenue and any additional workforce requirements will be short term.

So why triple the possibility of a leak (those are the statistics for tar sands over regular oil)? A spill could ruin our waters locally; harm the local economy including reduced tourism; add burned off chemical residues to our air and possibly contaminate Portland's (and other) water supplies.

Our pristine Crooked River, the Androscoggin and the Presumpscot could be irrevocably damaged. I care about the water I drink and the air I breathe; those are two of many reasons I love Maine.

www.waterford4me.org certainly opened my eyes.

Ray Holme

Waterford