Prince Albert’s mayor is concerned that the root cause of last summer’s Husky oil spill in the North Saskatchewan River is linked to slope instability in the area it occurred.
“One of the questions I have asked is ‘it was sloping on the river that caused it to move, well, where don’t we have a problem with sloping on the river,’” Prince Albert Mayor Greg Dionne said at a press conference Monday afternoon.
“You look in Saskatoon they have two fresh ones, we have some right here just in our city limits that we have to deal with.”
READ MORE: Ground movement to blame for oil spill into North Saskatchewan River: Husky Energy
The mayor spoke to reporters in the wake of a Husky Energy incident report released last week, which found that July’s spill was caused by a pipe that broke from ground movement near Maidstone, Sask. The break sent 225,000 litres of blended crude into and around the North Saskatchewan River.
Dionne said he is concerned about other pipelines near the riverbank, in areas that could be “compromised and weakened.” He also said his administration will conduct its own review of Husky’s findings.
The spill directly affected drinking water to a number of communities, including Prince Albert, which was forced to pump water above ground from other sources during the weeks that followed the spill. City manager Jim Toye said there’s now a separate pipe at its intake that can detect hydrocarbons in the water.
The new equipment is part of “a three-phase, three-pronged system,” Toye said, that also includes similar technology at two different steps in the water intake process.
The new measures are all part of an ongoing response to an incident Dionne said he never thought his staff would have to deal with.
“There was no … pulling a manual off the shelf and going to page five and we had all the answers,” he said.
“They were actually making that manual as we went along.”
FULL COVERAGE: North Saskatchewan River Husky oil spill
Dionne said he is now looking forward to a provincial report on the oil spill and added that his city is committed to protecting the province’s waterways.
“I especially look forward to hearing any proposals on improvement of monitoring and detection of pipelines and having an emergency response plan to avoid future incidents,” Dionne said.
Provincial officials have said their report is expected to be released in early 2017.
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