On Tuesday, the city updated media on its water supply after a Husky Energy pipeline leaked oil into the North Saskatchewan River last week.
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Deterrent devices, including flagging, are being used to keep wildlife from the shoreline and river and wildlife monitoring continues, Husky said. Husky having shut down the pipeline is more anxious about making sure the cleanup works out and after it is done can investigate the breach.
The line is part of the Husky gathering system, which collects heavy oil from facilities north of the North Saskatchewan River. The company also arranged for aerial surveillance to be done at daybreak.
As a precaution Husky made a decision to start pipeline shutdown procedures around 6 a.m. on July 21, and later that morning received reports of a sheen on the river.
“Our investigation is going to be comprehensive and it’s going to be thorough, so we will know in due course the sequence of events and what exactly transpired, but right now we’re focused on the response”, Pate said Tuesday.
It also said Premier Brad Wall, a vocal supporter of pipelines, told reporters at the Premier’s meeting in Whitehorse last week, that while pipelines remain imperfect in terms of moving oil, they’re still the safest way to do it, and spills from rail cars are four and half times more likely. But Wes Kotyk with the Saskatchewan Ministry of Environment said Sunday that about 100,000 litres had been collected so far.
Greenpeace spokesman Keith Stewart said the time lag between leak detection and pipe shutdown isn’t surprising.
About 250-thousand liters of crude escaped, forcing Prince Albert to shut down their water intake operations and bring in strict conservation guidelines.
The move comes hours after the city shut down its water intake from the river. A precautionary drinking water advisory was expected to kick in for the area’s roughly 7,000 people at 12 a.m. today.
Ferris said officials are working on ways to treat water for hydrocarbons if backup water supplies run out before the oil passes.
A major oil spill into the North Saskatchewan River upstream of Maidstone, Saskatchewan does not pose an immediate threat to Manitoba waters, according to the province. Hospitals are looking at alternative water supplies.
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By far the largest community affected so far is the city of Prince Albert, which has a population of about 35,000 people.
