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Edmonton creek oil spill kept secret
News Articles | QMI Agency | Andrew Hanon | October 02, 2010
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EDMONTON – While Hollywood heavyweight James Cameron was being squired around Alberta to learn about the oilsands, Randy Neufeldt was watching a clean-up crew discreetly mop up a crude-oil spill in an Edmonton creek.
“I was really concerned,” he said. “I didn’t know what was going on. I kept checking the news but I couldn’t find any information.” Turns out, it was a minor spill — about 300 litres (two barrels) leaked from a decommissioned pipe belonging to Gibson Energy, a company that collects crude from wells and distributes it to refineries.
A spokesman for the Energy Resources Conservation Board said no public warning was issued. The board only issues public notices about spills and leaks when there’s a “public impact.”
But NDP environment critic Rachel Notley argues the government should “err on the side of caution.”
“The public has the right to know what’s going on right from the outset,” she said. “To say after the fact that there was no impact so there was no need to let anyone know doesn’t ring true. I find it hard to believe that you can dump oil into water that flows into the North Saskatchewan without having some impact.”
She added: “it begs the question of whether the decision to not notify the public has anything to do with James Cameron’s visit.”
The leak was at Gibson’s holding facility at 10534 17 St. Maps show the creek flowing into the North Saskatchewan River across from Rundle Park.
Company officials say the leak was detected on Sept. 23. Neufeldt said he saw the clean-up crews on his commute home around 5:15 p.m. on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. On the second day, he said, the area reeked of gas.
“That was when I got worried,” he said. “I didn’t know what had been spilled and how much damage it was causing.” Bob Curran of ERCB, which monitors Alberta’s pipelines, said Gibson handled the leak properly — notifying the government agency right away and quickly getting on with the clean-up.
“The thing about oil or any liquid hydrocarbon is they move so quickly and disperse so rapidly across water,” he said. “They have to be managed very carefully.”
The board will now investigate what led to the leak, while Alberta Environment will monitor the company’s work reclaiming the damaged land.
“We will, of course, fully remediate the small are of contamination,” Gibson spokesman Carrie Willemsen said in an email.
On Friday crews continued to mop up the spill. The creek was dammed in two spots, while its banks were lined with booms to keep the oil from getting onshore. Bags of saturated material for soaking up the oil littered the ground.
It would be easy for passersby to assume the spill was much bigger than it turned out to be.
“They really should have said something,” Neufeldt said.
Alberta Environment is now investigating the mishap.
Four years ago, Imperial Oil was slapped with a $200,000 fine after 400 litres of wastewater was accidentally dumped in the North Saskatchewan. The fine could have been $600,000, but government officials said they were going easy on Imperial “due to the accidental nature of the infraction, Imperial’s quick response to the leak and their early guilty plea.”
Tagged with: oil spill, edmonton, gibson energy
