Tundra oil spill cleanup bill tops $2M: prez

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This article was published 08/04/2013 (4809 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Around $2.4 million has been spent so far on an oil spill in the RM of Pipestone, and it will take more than six months for the land to return to normal, according to Tundra Oil and Gas Partnership.

According to Tundra president and CEO Dan MacLean, costs will continue to rise, but didn’t give an estimated final price tag of the spill, which saw around 100,000 litres of oil seep into land the size of two football fields just south of Highway 255 near the Saskatchewan border.

While the bulk of the spill has been dealt with, smaller scale cleanups will continue through the summer and crews from Weyburn, Sask.-based Matrix Environmental have been working for the past four months on digging up more than 15 vertical feet of contaminated soil.

“Ultimately, we think the whole site will be placed back to normal in about October,” MacLean told the Sun.

The contaminated dirt has been contained nearby with a polymer berm and will be chemically treated and “left to weather” for up to two years, when it will be replaced, according to MacLean.

Crews have completed a large diversion to nearby Jackson Creek in an attempt to stop any toxins from entering the waterway, which feeds into the Souris River. The diversion was a race against the later-than-normal spring breakup, though the creek generally runs dry in the summer months.

“We continue to monitor and take samples and we’ll take samples for as long as we think we need to test the waters,” MacLean said.

According to a provincial spokesperson, the government “expect(s) companies to implement preventative measures where appropriate” through what it calls “proactive self-regulation,” but the Department of Innovation, Energy, and Mines ultimately gives the final OK when cleanup is completed.

The Winnipeg-based company has been leading the cleanup of the oil spill which was the result of a break in one of its lines in January — an estimated 10 days after the leak started. Tundra believes it is the result of a line installed underneath by Calgary-based energy giant Enbridge, Inc.

Enbridge declined to speculate on the cause of the line break when contacted by the Sun last month, but Tundra holds the assumption Enbridge is at fault. MacLean said the ground collapsed after a 16-inch line was installed underneath Tundra’s existing six-year-old line in November 2012.

The farmer who owns the contaminated land will receive compensation, a deal that will be struck privately between him and the oil company at fault.

MacLean said his company has been in talks with the landowner and a final settlement will be decided after an official cause is found.

“At the moment, we’re taking on all the responsibility and we will take it up with Enbridge later on,” he said.

MacLean added it won’t be long before a definitive answer is released stating which of the two companies is at fault.

“It shouldn’t take too much longer, we have to look at our pipe and decide if it was a stress break, we think it is … it might be another month before they get to that point,” he said.

It’s unlikely the province will issue any fines or penalties.

Meanwhile, a report released by the National Energy Board in March stated Enbridge has not adhered to federal safety compliances in 117 of its pump stations in several different regions, including the Bakken station, into which the newly installed line in pipestone feeds.

According to the report, many of Enbridge’s emergency shutdown systems were not compliant with federal regulations following 2011 inspections at terminal stations in Edmonton, Sarnia, Ont., and Westover, Ont. The company responded by stating it would have the issue resolved by October 2012.

But subsequent inspections in October 2012 on the Bakken system revealed similar issues. The National Energy Board accepted a request by Enbridge for an extension on the deadline to resolve the issue, citing the complexity and magnitude of their pipeline operation.

The new Enbridge line involved in the spill is part of the company’s expansion of its Bakken program in the Williston Basin. The new completed pipeline will carry crude oil from Berthold, N.D., to Cromer, where crude volumes can then access the Enbridge mainline system which serve the midwestern United States and Eastern Canada.

» gbruce@brandonsun.com