SEATTLE — Suquamish Tribe Chairman Leonard Forsman was among the U.S. Tribal leaders to testify this week in Canada against a proposed pipeline expansion that could increase the number of oil tankers in the Salish Sea.

The Associated Press reported that Forsman told Canada’s National Energy Board in Chilliwack, B.C., that Suquamish is opposed because of potential oil spill risks.

“The more traffic there is, the more oil there is, the more opportunity there is for a catastrophic spill,” he said on Oct. 22 in a story by Associated Press reporter Phuong Le. “We’re concerned about the catastrophic impact that an oil spill can have on the ecosystem.”

Kinder Morgan Canada has proposed a $5.4 billion expansion of its Trans Mountain pipeline, which would increase the flow of Alberta tar sands oil from 300,000 barrels of oil a day to almost 900,000, the AP reported. Kinder Morgan plans to ship 400 tanker loads of heavy crude oil annually.

It’s not the only project that indigenous leaders say threaten the Salish Sea environment — as well as related treaty rights enjoyed by Native and non-Native peoples.

In Kitimat, heavy crude from Enbridge Inc.’s Northern Gateway pipeline is proposed to be loaded onto tankers bound for Asia. Canada approved the project on June 17.

Near Bellingham, Gateway Pacific proposes a coal train terminal at Cherry Point, a sacred and environmentally sensitive area. Early site preparation was done without permits and desecrated ancestral burials.

In addition, Victoria, B.C. — with 345,000 people the 15th most populous urban region in Canada —  dumps about a million gallons of filtered, untreated sewage into the Salish Sea every day.

In September, Jewell James, director of the Lummi Nation’s Sovereignty and Treaty Protection Office, told Indian Country Today that there are alternatives to coal and oil — among them energy generated by wind, sun and tides.

“But we’re not going to move toward those until we move away from fossil fuels,” he said.

In addition to serving as chairman of the Suquamish Tribe, Forsman is a member — appointed by President Obama — of the U.S. Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, and a member of the Washington State Committee on Geographic Names.