Prince Albert mayor calls for $1M ‘apology’ from Husky
Prince Albert’s mayor says he wants Husky Energy Inc. to provide a $1-million “apology” almost two years after one of its pipelines spilled thousands of litres of heavy crude into the North Saskatchewan River, forcing the city to close its water treatment plant for two months.
Greg Dionne first floated the idea of a cash apology in a speech last month.
In an interview on Thursday, he said it would add to the roughly $10 million Husky paid the city to cover direct and indirect costs associated with the spill, including a 30-kilometre water line.
“I do believe they owe us an apology,” Dionne said, adding he expects to send the Calgarybased energy company — whose handling of the July 20, 2016, spill he admires — a formal request for the money sometime next week.
The money will be used to finish the final 1.5 kilometres of the city ’s Rotary Trail, which was closed to accommodate the emergency water line, and to help build a new spray park and expand existing ones, all of which were closed for weeks along with public pools.
“Lots of single mothers and lots of low-income people, that was their vacation spot for their kids that summer … They couldn’t afford to go to Christopher, Emma, all of our lakes. There’s a big sector of our population that doesn’t have that privilege,” he said.
Husky spokesman Mel Duvall said in an email that the company has an “excellent working relationship with Prince Albert and (is) always available for discussions with the city.”
Husky has not disclosed any sums paid to communities as a result of the spill, he added.
The spill began before midnight on July 20, 2016, when ground movement caused the pipeline running underneath the river to buckle.
The broken line went undetected for at least seven hours; an estimated 225,000 litres of crude and condensate escaped.
Communities downstream scrambled to close their water treatment plants’ intakes in the hours after oil slicks on the river were detected.
Prince Albert did not have a secondary water source and scrambled to build two temporary pipelines to other nearby rivers.
Limited supply led to water rationing for the city of 35,000. In addition to closing public pools, Prince Albert shut car washes and heavily restricted water use.
The city was able to reopen its river intake in September 2016, more than two months later.
According to Husky’s financial filings, the total cost of cleaning up the spill — all of which was incurred by its partly owned subsidiary, Husky Midstream Limited Partnership — was at least $107 million.