The city of North Battleford, which draws its drinking water in part from the North Saskatchewan River, shut its supply consumption on Friday and changed to utilizing ground water, provincial officials said in a telephone conference with reporters.
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“This morning they saw the sheen downstream from us”, Schafer said Friday. In the meantime, North Battleford is filling all of their water reserves and their water tower, and say they’re also prepared to shut the water treatment plant, if necessary.
Husky Energy Inc. shut a pipeline that was the source of a 1,570 barrel oil spill that entered into the North Saskatchewan River in Canada. Chief operating officer Rob Peabody said some of the spilled oil was on land and was being recovered.
The company turned off the pipeline and put out booms to contain the spill.
The Calgary-based energy company’s pipeline, whose age is unknown, runs from its heavy oil operations to its facilities in Lloydminster.
It is not immediately clear what caused the spill.
“We said at the beginning of this program this wouldn’t be a fire sale”, he said.
Prince Albert residents are being asked to stock up on water as an upstream oil spill in the North Saskatchewan River approaches the city.
Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall, who is known for his ardent support of pipelines, said while an oil spill was not something anyone wanted to see, his support for the infrastructure continues.
“This is a rare event”, he said. Husky Energy has said between 200,000 and 250,000 litres of crude oil and other material leaked into the river on Thursday from its pipeline. “We are about 4.5 times more likely to have a spill from oil on a rail vehicle than on a pipeline”. “We’ve been hearing that oil has been not only affecting water but also the lining of the river banks as it’s coming down”, Adamko said.
Husky ranks in the top quartile among integrated oil companies for a three-year average oil spill rate relative to crude produced, Bloomberg Intelligence analysts Gregory Elders and Philipp Chladek reported last month.
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“To be honest with you, I distinguish between a media reaction and a public reaction”, he said. “We have procedures in place and we ensure that we make the procedures even more robust from each learning experience”.
