Intakes may reopen by winter
Water Security Agency ‘hopeful’ spill cleanup will be done by Oct. 1
Three cities forced to shut down their water treatment plant intakes after a Husky Energy Inc. oil spill will have to rely on secondary water sources for at least another month.
However, the provincial agency responsible for ensuring drinking water safety in Saskatchewan is optimistic that North Battleford, Prince Albert and Melfort will be able to reopen their intakes before freeze-up.
“I’m hopeful that use of the intakes will be able to resume sometime in the next few weeks,” Water Security Agency spokesman Sam Ferris told reporters on a conference call Thursday morning.
The cities were forced to close their intakes and scramble to establish secondary drinking water sources after one of the Calgarybased company’s pipelines failed on July 20, dumping up to 250,000 litres of heavy crude into the North Saskatchewan River.
The roughly 800 workers — including about 150 members of local First Nations — working to clean up the spill have recovered about 164,000 litres of spilled crude to date, Ministry of Environment spokesman Wes Kotyk told reporters on the call.
Recovery efforts are expected to cease temporarily over the weekend as heavy rainfall in Alberta causes the river to rise about two metres, but the cleanup remains on track, Kotyk said.
“With just over a month left until the anticipated early freeze mark — the date we’re going with is Oct. 1 — Husky and operations feel that it is sufficient time to do the remainder of the shore cleanup once they can get back onto the water,” he said.
On Thursday, the WSA released results of tests conducted on a second batch of water samples pulled from the river this month. One of the 120 new results failed to meet Health Canada’s drinking water guidelines, the WSA said in its report.
Ferris said the WSA’s results are “generally consistent” with those of other organizations testing the water, including the U.S.-based Center for Toxicology and Environmental Health (CTEH), the third-party contractor hired by Husky.
Despite this, water restrictions remain in place. Communities along the North Saskatchewan are still using secondary water sources and people are encouraged to avoid eating fish pulled from the river.
Prince Albert Mayor Greg Dionne is hedging in case the intake can’t be opened before winter. He said the city of 35,000 is still developing potential long-term solutions, including a heated pipeline and new treatment plant filters.
“We’re going to continue to look at all our options until we have a definite (approval to) go back into the North Saskatchewan from the Water Security Agency,” Dionne said.
The newly formed Kisiskatchewan Water Alliance Network (KWAN) is waiting on the results of an independent water quality study it commissioned, before offering a verdict on the water quality.
“The independent study may offer both a view and some suggestions than the one that’s just been released hasn’t touched, or it may give us more in-depth information as well about what’s happening,” said Don Kossick, a spokesman for the group.
Tyrone Tootoosis, who helped found KWAN, said the group is dismayed at what it sees as the lack of interest shown by Husky and the provincial government, and that both parties should be more transparent about the effects of industry on the environment.
“We need to ensure that there’s more information made available to the general public about what we haven’t been told — information not only on the industry itself, but the relationship between government and industry,” he said.
Husky spokesman Mel Duvall said the company has “undertaken from the very beginning” to have open lines of communication with affected First Nations, and that meetings with local groups are ongoing.
“It’s a big job, but we’ve taken it up full-on, and we’re not going to stop,” Duvall said of Husky’s commitment to consulting First Nations and other affected groups.
While the cleanup is progressing, it remains unclear what caused the 19-year-old Husky pipeline — one of 8,947 licensed pipelines that cross bodies of water in the province — to fail.