Churchill, Manitoba

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Orthographic projection centred over Churchill, Manitoba, Canada.png

Churchill, Manitoba is a port on Hudson's Bay, at the mouth of Churchill River.[1][2] Churchill is attached to the North American railroad grid -- the only port on the Arctic Ocean that is.

Much of the rail line crosses permafrost, so damage, due to frost heaving, calls for constant maintenance.

Originally the port was to be situated on the mouth of the nearby Nelson River. But the Nelson is a larger river, that is heavily laden with silt, and maintaining port facilities there would have posed technical difficulties, including constant dredging.

Churchill's position on the coast leads to a significant number of Polar bears migrating through Churchill. Churchill has tourists who visit in order to see the Polar bears. Churchill is also a good location for those wishing to see the Northern Lights.

On October 31, 2012, the Financial Post reported that due to delays in the approval of several new pipelines from Alberta's oil fields oil industry planners were considering shipping oil, by rail, to Churchill, for loading on panamax oil tankers.[3] Under this plan icebreakers would extend the shipping season.

References

  1. "Canada's climate change boomtown". BBC. 2008-01-02. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/business/7155494.stm. Retrieved 2008-08-10. 
  2. Clifford Krauss, Steven Lee Myers, Andrew C. Revkin, Simon Romero (2005-10-10). "As Polar Ice Turns to Water, Dreams of Treasure Abound". New York Times. Archived from the original on 2012-07-16. http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2005%2F10%2F10%2Fscience%2F10arctic.html%3Fpagewanted%3Dall&date=2012-07-16.  mirror
  3. Claudia Cattaneo (2012-10-31). "Oil producers eye Arctic backup plan as pipelines face uncertain future" (in English). Financial Post. Archived from the original on 2012-11-05. http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fbusiness.financialpost.com%2F2012%2F10%2F31%2Foil-producers-eye-arctic-backup-plan-as-pipelines-face-uncertain-future%2F&date=2012-11-05. Retrieved 2012-11-. "Discussions are quietly underway between Calgary’s oil community, Canada’s only Arctic seaport, railway companies, and refiners on the East Coast and the Gulf Coast, as well as in Europe, to collect unrefined oil by rail from fields across Western Canada, get it to the port on the west coast of Hudson Bay and load it on Panamax-class tankers."