Oil that leaked into the ground and got into Halifax Harbour last week will take weeks to clean, a spokesperson for Nova Scotia Power said on Tuesday.
The heavy fuel oil leak happened on Thursday in the afternoon at the company’s Tufts Cove Generating Station adjacent to the harbour in Dartmouth, N.S.
READ MORE: Oil leaks into Halifax Harbour from Nova Scotia Power station
The company hasn’t fully quantified the amount that came out but called it “limited” last week and said that fewer than 5,000 litres made it into the water. Nova Scotia Power spokesperson David Rodenhiser said in Halifax that that number comes from the company’s lead consultant, Eastern Canada Response Corporation.
There will be an internal analysis of what happened, including third-party expertise when needed, he added.
The leak, stemming from a hole about an inch in size, was said to have been found during a visual inspection done several times a day.
Questions on the time when the leak was discovered, how long it had been since the last inspection to the discovery and how long the pipe leaked for were not immediately answered.
“The estimation that I’ve heard is that it was two hours at the most that that leak could have gone undetected,” Rodenhiser said.
Nova Scotia Power is “very much keeping a close eye on” potential impacts to animals, and the company has not found any animals that appear to be contaminated with oil, he said.
Noisemakers are being used to scare away birds at the site.
Mark Butler, policy director at the Ecology Action Centre, said using the fuel in this matter at the station is not worth the risk.
“If the wind had been blowing from a different direction, if the tide had gone out, some of that oil might have ended up on the Halifax waterfront or the Dartmouth waterfront,” the environmentalist said in an interview.
Rodenhiser said it’s not known how much work is left to complete the cleanup nor the cost, but the company intends to follow through with it.
“We do have insurance for these types of incidents so we expect it would be a claimable item under our insurance policies,” he said.
In an email received on Friday, Nova Scotia Environment spokesperson Adèle Poirier said the department was notified about the leak at about 5:20 p.m.
“Our staff were at the location (Friday) morning to inspect the site and the remediation work. So far, (Nova Scotia Power) is acting in accordance with our regulations,” she said.