Oil spill forces backup plan for city’s water

PRINCE ALBERT, Sask. — Officials in Saskatchewan are preparing a city of more than 35,000 people to treat storm pond water as a backup as oil from a pipeline leak makes it way along a major river.

Sam Ferris with Saskatchewan’s water security agency said Prince Albert gets most of its water from the North Saskatchewan River, and staff there are getting ready to shut down the intakes when oil from the leak flows past the city.

Ferris said the city is planning to treat water from storm water retention ponds and other reservoirs, which he said would last about seven days.

“At this time, we don’t think the plume is going to reach Prince Albert for some time, likely not before sometime later Sunday or early Monday,” he said Saturday.

Between 200,000 and 250,000 litres of crude oil and other material leaked into the river upstream from a breach Thursday in Husky Energy’s pipeline near Maidstone, Sask.

The company shut down the line and put out booms about 40 kilometres upstream from North Battleford, a city that has already shut its water intakes.

Ferris said officials are working on ways to treat water for hydrocarbons if backup water supplies run out before the oil passes.

He said preparations are also being made downstream after the North Saskatchewan and the South Saskatchewan rivers converge, where a Saskatchewan Water Corporation intake draws water for Melfort and other municipalities.

Prince Albert issued a statement late Friday afternoon urging its residents to fill bathtubs and water jugs with water over the next 24 hours.

North Battleford saw signs of the spill as early as Friday morning. The city also has a groundwater supply, but Ferris said the amount of water that can be treated is limited.

Wes Kotyk with the Saskatchewan government’s environmental protection branch said Environment Canada is working on models to predict when communities can expect the oil to pass.