Just four days prior to the Christmas Eve explosion at the Co-op refinery in Regina, a valve leak left dozens of vehicles in the neighbouring area covered in oil.
On December 20, sometime before 1:00 p.m., a plume of crude oil was sent into the air.
A spokesperson for Co-op says the wind played a major role in sending droplets of oil up to 700 metres away. The incident, unrelated to the explosion on December 24, is being described as similar to a “water sprinkler”.
“I didn’t think anything was out of the ordinary until I left for lunch and came out to my truck and noticed it was completely covered in a weird substance,” said Barry Balog, who works at a business south of the refinery on Hodsman Road. “I keep my truck pretty clean and I knew something was wrong. I thought maybe it was just in one spot. As I went around my truck, I noticed it was on every side… the roof, the wheels. It was everywhere.”
Co-op won’t say how many vehicles were affected, but the company is paying for owners to have them cleaned.
“I know all the people that I talked to, certainly around Hodsman Road here, their vehicles are covered as well,” said Balog. “There had to be a substantial number of vehicles that had the same thing on it.”
Co-op says it has been more than 20 years since an incident like this has happened.
Recently, some people have expressed concerns over the safety of the Co-op refinery following the city’s plans to build a new subdivision, called SomerSet, near the complex.
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