SAN FRANCISCO, May 29 (Xinhua) -- Governor Jay Inslee of the U.S. western state of Washington has sharply rebuked a Canadian pipeline project, calling it "profoundly damaging" to the endangered southern-resident killer whale population, a media report said Tuesday.
The Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project would increase by seven times the oil-tanker traffic in the waters between Washington state and Canada, a prime habitat of orcas or killer whales, The Seattle Times newspaper said.
The project was included in a deal between the Canadian government and Houston-based Kinder Morgan of the U.S., which was being built to ship bitumen oil from Canada's Alberta province to the West Coast for sale to Asian markets.
The increased traffic will raise noise levels underwater that have already interfered with the whales' foraging time for scarce chinook salmon, said the newspaper.
It quoted Inslee as saying in a statement that it is not the "time to hinder our efforts to protect our already endangered orcas."
"The effects of increased noise pollution from oil tanker traffic is significant. Noise is one of the reasons the southern resident orca population is at a 30-year low," he said.
When large tankers cruise over the waves, the sound blankets the undersea world for miles, drowning out a whale's ability to find food and communicate with other whales, said the governor.
The population of the southern-resident killer whales has dwindled to only 76 animals in the wild, according to the report.
"The proposed pipeline expansion would take us backward in profoundly damaging ways. It does not have the support of Washington state," Inslee said.
The Canadian government agreed Tuesday to buy the pipeline system and expansion project for 4.5 billion Canadian dollars (about 3.46 billion U.S. dollars).
The project has also drawn extensive criticism back in Canada. More than 250,000 people have signed a petition against the project, with an additional 24,000 pledging to "do whatever it takes to stop the project," said the newspaper.
