Posted on 10/19/2008 2:40:53 PM PDT by fight_truth_decay
Wiebo Ludwig,(Alberta farmer) convicted of bombings in 1990s, says he understands frustration that leads to sabotage.
RCMP called in members of a local search and rescue team on Saturday to help sift through a 300-metre debris field surrounding the second of two pipeline bombings.
"It's likely we'll still be there tomorrow," RCMP spokesman Tim Shields said. Anything out of the ordinary hidden in the long grass and fallen leaves could lead them to the bomber.
RCMP also released a partial description of a pickup truck seen leaving the scene the morning of the latest explosion. That blast happened before dawn Thursday and blew a crater one metre deep and let a small hiss of sour gas escape from the insulated steel pipeline. Two pipelines have been targeted in the Tomslake area, just across the border from Alberta in the past week.
The site of the second blast is five kilometres off the main highway on the way to Dawson Creek, just off the border. It was discovered hours later by two electricians. No one was injured.
(Excerpt) Read more at canada.com ...
Bill Ayers
We were taught that if the well blew out we were to set the well head on fire and run like hell.
I worked up in the derrick on a well that kicked alot of mud out and tried to blow out but didnt.
We learned later that when they were completing the well three roughnecks died. Each one going out to get one who was down and himself falling dead.
I forget what parts per million it took to kill you but it wasnt very much at all.
SNIP
".....you are a landowner in this Soviet-style state. A company comes along and proposes to put a sour-gas well in front of your dining room. Someone might explain that the good people of California need to stay cool in the summer and the good people of Ontario need to stay warm in the winter. You're offered $25,000 for the inconvenience and annual rent of $5,000 as "hush money."
Your family and your livestock then breathe hydrocarbons that the medical literature has identified as brain-melters, lung-wasters and sex-changers. Your cattle die and your children pass out cold. Someone develops facial paralysis, multiple sclerosis or other neurological symptoms.
Well, that's just too bad because industry does most of the monitoring and the self-policing in Alberta. You might wait months for redress -- even years. According to the state, these emissions are harmless; it's just an odour problem; it's in the public interest for rural Albertans to smell these odours. (For years the EUB had only one mobile air monitor.)
Now imagine you are a self-righteous Christian fundamentalist who loves his family. Your wife and daughters-in-law miscarry after exposure to hydrocarbons that are well-known womb-emptiers. You civilly and legally challenge the system and are told to go to hell in the public interest. And then a war begins that exposes the vanity and arrogance of all sides and terrorizes an entire community. And that's the Ludwig saga in a nutshell. Not much has changed in Alberta since this conflict made international headlines. Tensions remain so high in the countryside that many pipelines and wells now have 24-hour guards. Industry even reports people to the RCMP for merely taking pictures of flaring wells.
In fact, Alberta has the highest rate of "eco-terrorism" of any jurisdiction on the continent and some of the nation's highest rates of respiratory and neurological diseases.
Generally speaking, no one will tell you that sour gas is a cyanide-like poison. Or that it's so toxic that the Canadian government even used it in its secret chemical-warfare program during the Second World War.
I dont give a rats ass if there is a pipeline there. I do give a rats ass if you want to blow it up to make a point. These pipelines are in the ground not above ground where you can screw with them. Dont try to take my story and make a point that its okay to terrorise people to make a point.
Was no intent to further your story, it was just a perspective from the "another side" and explaining "hydrogen sulphide in gas...(sour gas)", which you had pointed out and I had just been reading about.
I never said or implied it was ok to terrorize people! You misinterpret, so don't get steamed! Nothing wrong with wondering the motive, right or wrong. It was merely background on "Wiebo Ludwig's War Against Big Oil" and how this all began.
No, a terrorist act is NEVER NEVER ok. I do understand the concern the landowners had back then. Often government (local, state)and progress is about GREED, and the good of its citizens comes second.
Hydrogen sulfide reacts with enzymes in the bloodstream and inhibits cellular respiration resulting in pulmonary paralysis, sudden collapse and death.
Continuous exposure to low (15-50 ppm) concentrations will generally cause irritation to mucous membranes, and may also cause headache, dizziness or nausea.
Higher concentrations (200-300 ppm) may result in respiratory arrest leading to coma or unconsciousness.
Exposures for more than 30 minutes at concentrations greater than 700 ppm have been fatal.
Continuous inhalation of low concentrations may cause olfactory fatigue or paralysis of the sense of smell. Thus, detection of hydrogen sulfide by its odor is not effective.
From MSDS data at: http://www.vngas.com/pdf/g94.pdf
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