Husky oil spill spurs citizens to take action
New alliance hires firm to study ‘real impact’ on North Saskatchewan River
A month after a Husky Energy Inc. pipeline failed, spilling at least 200,000 litres of heavy crude near and into the North Saskatchewan River, activists, environmentalists and organizations have teamed up to create a new water advocacy group.
“Water is life. No water, no life — it’s that simple ” said Emil Bell, a Canoe Lake First Nation elder whose weeklong hunger strike protesting the July 20 spill led to the formation of the Kisiskatchewan Water Alliance Network (KWAN).
The alliance — Kisiskatchewan is the Plains Cree name for the North Saskatchewan River — is intended to bring together organizations under the banner of activism, and lobby both government and industry for better environmental protection.
Bell’s hunger strike ended Aug. 12. Tyrone Tootoosis, who hosted the 75-year-old elder in a teepee on his farm north of Duck Lake, told Postmedia News the goal has shifted from raising awareness to taking action.
“It seems like some of the people are in this apathetic state of complacency — can’t seem to wake up,” Bell said Monday, echoing Tootoosis’s words. “People gotta start taking it seriously, this disaster.”
Formed after two meetings held near Duck Lake, KWAN has been joined and endorsed by organizations including Idle No More, the Saskatchewan Environmental Society and the North Saskatchewan River Basin Council, according to a news release.
“We talked a lot about how water can bridge communities and I think there was a real sense that we should be doing things like … really try and find the different ways we can work together,” said Don Kossick, one of the alliance’s spokespeople.
The results of a study on the “real impact” of the spill, performed by the Santa Fe, N.M.-based nonprofit E-Tech International, are expected to be released and distributed in the next few weeks, he said.
“With communities receiving more information about what’s happening and what the impacts on them (are), they themselves and different organizations they’re part of can hold industry and government to account.”
KWAN’s study will be the fourth examination of the North Saskatchewan released since the spill. Two studies performed by a Huskyfinanced technical team and one by the provincial Water Security Agency have shown encouraging results.
Husky turned down an interview request. Mel Duvall, a spokesman for the Calgary-based company, said in an email that the company is focused on “completing the cleanup and supporting the efforts of the technical working group on the water sampling and analysis.”
Bell said that while then KWAN group was formed following the Husky spill, its aim is much broader.
He said he hopes it will become a voice for all communities in the province affected by industry, and encourage a shift toward renewables.
“I don’t want my children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, future generations to have to be involved in the cleanup of the mess that people make because of their greed,” he said.
Asked whether KWAN can successfully lobby government and industry for stricter environmental controls and a shift toward renewable resources, Bell said it can. Kossick, a veteran activist and organizer, agreed.
“We think forming the alliance brings together a citizen power that is there to do that — to hold accountable those who are responsible for making sure that we don’t have spills like we saw.”
Forming the alliance brings together a citizen power … to hold accountable those who are responsible for making sure we don’t have spills like we saw.