100-litre oil spill reported at plant north of Kamloops

Crews are on site cleaning up at a Kinder Morgan facility near Kamloops after a crude oil spill was reported Sunday morning.

A B.C. Ministry of Environment spokesman confirmed 100 litres of oil was spilled at Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline Darfield facility, just north of Kamloops near Barriere. The oil leaked from a flow metre and was reported to authorities just before 5 a.m.

The crude oil went into the ground but does not affect any waterways; it has since been contained.

Vacuum trucks were on site and there is no estimated timeline available for how long the cleanup

will take. A statement issued by the oil company said “internal safety systems” alerted workers to the “operational disruption” early Sunday morning and in response, the station was isolated and the main Trans Mountain pipeline was shut down.

“Crews are onsite and air monitoring is ongoing, with no concerns outside the pump station at this time,” the statement read. “An investigation confirmed a release of product from some station piping and has been contained entirely within Trans Mountain’s facility.”

Provincial and local authorities have been notified and cleanup is underway.

The company said it restarted the Trans Mountain pipeline around 3:20 p.m. on Sunday.

The spill came the same day Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson slammed the Ship-source Oil Pollution Fund for only offering 27 per cent of the $550,000 it cost to clean up the 2015 Marathassa oil spill in English Bay.

That spill released 2,700 litres into the water.