North Battleford shuts down water plant
Attempts to contain oil spill from pipeline fail
North Battleford shut down its river-fed water treatment plant after attempts failed to contain all of the oil spilled into the North Saskatchewan River from a Husky Energy Inc. pipeline.
“We’ve taken all the precautionary measures that we need to do to make sure that our water supply system is secure and the citizens of North Battleford are not compromised,” Mayor Ian Hamilton said Friday afternoon.
On Thursday, Husky notified the province that a pipeline carrying heavy oil from its thermal operations had failed about 30 kilometres east of Lloydminster, releasing between 200,000 and 250,000 litres — the equivalent of two rail cars — of oil.
It remains unclear what caused the pipeline to fail or how much of the oil ended up in the river, which flows south through North Battleford before merging with the South Saskatchewan east of Prince Albert.
Containment booms have been deployed on the river near the Paynton ferry crossing,” Husky spokesman Mel Duvall said in an email Friday afternoon. “Through our ongoing surveillance, a sheen was observed further downstream and additional containment booms are being deployed.”
No water advisories have been issued, a water monitoring and sample testing program is in place and the Calgary-based energy giant will conduct a “thorough investigation,” Duvall said in the email.
Husky chief operations officer Rob Peabody told reporters on a conference call Friday morning that some of the spilled oil was on land and was being recovered and that no water advisories had been issued.
“What we do know is the leak was not under the river, as far as we can see,” he said. “The leak was kind of in a location near the river.”
Hamilton said North Battleford topped up its reservoirs and closed down its secondary water treatment plant in response to reports of oil downstream of a containment barrier set up by Husky crews 40 kilometres upstream near Paynton.
The city’s primary water treatment plant is fed from wells and can meet its needs except in emergencies such as a major fire, Hamilton said. North Battleford residents have been advised to avoid excess water use as a precaution, he added.
A news release from the city said Husky crews are helping to establish a berm around the secondary plant’s water intake structure to protect it from material flowing downstream.
Wes Kotyk, executive director of the Ministry of Environment’s environmental protection branch, told reporters Friday morning that communities along the river between the spill and Prince Albert had been notified.
“If there is any potential for (the) plume to be passing their communities, they can shut down their intake for a period of time, till that passes,” Kotyk said.
The incident is likely the most significant oil spill in the province since part of a CN freight train loaded with oil derailed and burst near Clair, about 190 kilometres southeast of Saskatoon, in 2014, Kotyk said.
Premier Brad Wall defended pipelines while speaking with reporters in Whitehorse, Yukon on Friday morning. Wall is in Whitehorse to attend a premiers’ meeting.
“I think it’s important to point out that while pipelines remain imperfect in terms of a conveyance for our oil, they’re still the … safest way to move oil,” Wall said.
He told reporters spills are four and a half times more likely to come from rail cars than pipelines, and that incidents involving trains are “often more intense.”
“We also know that if you move oil by rail, the greenhouse gas emissions from those rail cars and from that train are higher … than other forms of energy transportation,” he said.
In response to a question about any potential negative public reaction to pipeline spills, Husky CEO Asim Ghosh said he distinguishes between a media reaction and a public reaction.
“But as far as we are concerned, we just focus on getting on with the job, you know,” Ghosh said. “If we’ve got a pipeline spill, we address the pipeline spill. We ensure we’ve got procedures in place and we ensure we make the procedures even more robust from each learning experience.”
Husky recently began operations at its Vawn Lloyd Thermal Project, the second of three heavy oil steam-assisted extraction operations in the region it plans to bring online this year.
Hamilton said that while there is always the possibility of a spill in Saskatchewan’s oil-rich economy, he hopes the ongoing mitigation efforts are successful. Energy companies’ activities will be closely scrutinized in the future, he added.
“This just elevates the recognition that we have to do better in the future to make sure our environment is protected and all of the resources that we so much enjoy in this province are protected,” he said. “They better be doing that.”
Husky is expected to cover all of the expenses and there will be little impact on taxpayers, Kotyk said.