Cleanup, testing underway after Husky pipeline leaks crude into Cox Hill Creek, west of Bragg Creek, in recreation area; Legally immune AER, with no public health or interest mandate, shows up too late to the scene of the crime, yet again.

Husky oil spill west of Bragg Creek estimated at 25,000 litres by The Canadian Press, March 23, 2017, Calgary Herald

Husky Energy says about 25,000 litres of crude oil leaked from one of its pipelines near Bragg Creek last week.

Spokesman Mel Duvall said in an email to The Canadian Press that cleanup at the site at Cox Hill Creek west of Bragg Creek is progressing well.

But he added the terrain where the leak happened is “very rocky and difficult.”

… Duvall said the cleanup is expected to be done in the next few days and then reclamation work will begin.

The leak was reported to Alberta Energy Regulator last Thursday.

“We take every incident seriously and will use what we learn from this incident to further improve our operations,” Duvall said Wednesday.

“We are undertaking a thorough investigation of the incident.” … [Emphasis added]

Alberta backcountry user groups alarmed after oil spill in Kananaskis Country by Carolyn Kurydecastillo, March 20, 2017, inews880
Alberta backcountry user groups alarmed after oil spill in Kananaskis Country

The cleanup is continuing Monday after an oil spill in Kananaskis Country. The leak was detected in the popular Alberta recreation region on Thursday when a Husky Energy operator discovered oil beside a pipeline.

The Alberta Energy Regulator says the pipeline released crude oil that impacted Cox Hill Creek about 22 kilometres west of Bragg Creek. The spill happened at Husky’s Moose Mountain operations.

In a statement, the company said the cleanup is progressing with the use of vacuum trucks and that precautions are being taken to ensure any run-off is diverted around the cleanup area.

The area is home to many mountain bike and cross-country ski trails. User groups say it is disturbing to hear about an oil spill in a place so many Albertans use for recreation.

“You hear about them a lot up north but just to have something this close to town is a bit surprising,” said Shaun Peter with Bragg Creek and Kananaskis Outdoor Recreation.

Alf Skrastins is with the Greater Bragg Creek Trails Association. He says there’s always the concern about natural gas in the area and the potential for water contamination.

Just the potential of sour gas leakage from the gas wells and the oil… The pipelines do cross a lot of water crossings and things like that so it depends on where it is,” Skrastins said.

Kananaskis Country is split between about 60 per cent protected park area and 40 per cent forest land use zone, which allows for oil and gas extraction, logging and cattle grazing. Skrastins thinks the mix is a good balance but he says more needs to be done to protect the environment on the portion where industry is at work.

“The province doesn’t put a lot of money or effort into the recreation side of the forest land use zone. They don’t put a huge amount of money or effort into the environmental protection side, either,” Skrastins said.

Shaun Peters has been fighting against ongoing logging plans in Kananaskis Country. He says public pressure has played a role in preserving the environment there and encourages people to learn more about what development is being planned for the area.

“A lot of the forest and the popular areas have been untouched and people assume that it’s protected in there. [They’re] shocked when they see the logging trucks come in,” Peters said.

Husky said there were no injuries and there was been no impact to wildlife.

AER staff are on site assessing the incident and said they are working with the company to ensure all safety and environmental requirements are met during the response. [Emphasis added]

Husky spill in K-Country among series of pipeline leaks for Calgary company by Reid Southwick, March 20, 2017, Calgary Herald

While Husky Energy Inc. says cleanup is underway at a pipeline spill in Kananaskis Country, the incident is but the latest in a series of leaks and ruptures the Calgary company has reported in recent years.

A Husky operator discovered crude oil beside a pipeline at Cox Hill Creek on Thursday afternoon. The volume of oil that spilled is unknown, but the energy regulator said the crude has affected the creek.

Husky said its crews are using vacuum trucks to clean up crude at the site, located 22 kilometres west of the popular hiking and camping community of Bragg Creek.

The spill follows 20 pipeline leaks and ruptures that Husky reported in Alberta last year, according to a database published by the Alberta Energy Regulator. A major spill released 149,000 litres of crude oil and process water north of Wainwright in eastern Alberta early February 2016.

Among all oil and gas producers that operate pipelines, Husky had the fourth-highest number of leaks and ruptures last year, followed by Penn West Petroleum Ltd. with 23, Cenovus Energy Inc. with 29 [Split from Encana] and Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. with 67. 

These incidents don’t include pipeline ruptures that occur outside Alberta, such as Husky’s spill of 225,000 litres of heavy oil mixed with diluent that flowed onto the bank of the North Saskatchewan River in Saskatchewan last July.

About 40 per cent of the spill, or 90,000 litres, reached the river, forcing the cities of North Battleford, Prince Albert and Melfort to shut their intakes from the river and find other water sources for almost two months.

The cleanup cost the company $107 million.

In 2015, Husky reported 35 leaks and ruptures in Alberta — the third-highest among producers — including two major spills.

Husky operates the second-largest network of oil and gas producer pipelines in Alberta, next to Canadian Natural Resources. It reported fewer than one leak or rupture per every 1,000 kilometres of pipe last year, well below the industry average of four.

The company says after the latest leak, the affected pipeline was immediately shut down, with no more oil flowing through it. Husky activated its emergency response plan and vowed a thorough investigation into the cause. [Emphasis added]

***

Subject: Fw: What Should Be Reported To The Owning Public During A Spill Or Blowout??
Date: Sun, 19 Mar 2017 14:35:40 -0600
From: Stewart Shields email hidden; JavaScript is required
To: email hidden; JavaScript is required, email hidden; JavaScript is required, email hidden; JavaScript is required
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From: Stewart Shields
Sent: Sunday, March 19, 2017 2:30 PM
To: email hidden; JavaScript is required
Subject: Fw: What Should Be Reported To The Owning Public During A Spill Or Blowout??

This type of public comment just doesn’t cut it!! Surely Husky should be able to determine the amount of product lost or the AER have a job to discover why this is not possible!?? The public appreciate that volume accuracy to a liter is impossible—however the public have the right to know if it is a shipload—a tanker truck load– or a approx. bbl. of product!! Being a gathering line is not enough information for the public to ascertain if any of the public’s petroleum was also lost in the spill?? We the public are asking that a notation of possible royalty dues be made on reports since this product belongs to the public being addressed?? The fact that Husky personnel saved the life of 3 frogs would have far less interest to the owning public than the loss of 3 barrels of light crude oil that was the royalty property of the affected public!!!! Governments have allowed the use of royalty production as incentive payments to industry- that has spiralled out of control—making the amounts of candy governments are offering industry impossible to be gauged—we the public need our proper royalty volumes in these desperate times!!

Stewart Shields [Husky statement below was attached to Mr. Shields’ emails]

Husky progresses cleanup in Moose Mountain operations area

On the afternoon of Thursday, March 16 a Husky operator discovered light oil beside the pipeline right of way near the Company’s Moose Mountain operations. The infield gathering line was immediately shut in and Husky activated its emergency response plan. The AER was also notified.

There is no flowing water at this location. Additional precautions are being taken to ensure any runoff is diverted around the cleanup area. A Husky response team is on site and cleanup is progressing, with the use of vacuum trucks. A spill volume will be determined as the assessment and cleanup are complete. [Or once Husky determines what the AER will let them get away with reporting?] There were no injuries and there has been no impact to wildlife. Husky is conducting a thorough investigation of the incident. [Emphasis added]

***

Brilliant comments to both articles in the Edmonton Journal and Calgary Herald:

Rob Schwartz
Could I be so bold as to predict another classic piece of public confidence building misdirection within a few days. As with the case in the June 2013 Plains Midstream pipe break in the Red Deer River, then Premier Allison Redford took full advantage of a stageg photo-op at Dixon Dam to proclaim that Red Deer River water met Alberta drinking water standards for hydrocarbons. What the premier convieniently omitted saying was that Alberta has no standard for hydrocarbon content in drinking water.
1 hr

Diana Daunheimer
Classic AER reporting, no volume of spill (which Husky should have readily available, if proper leak detection and emergency response programs were in place) and no impacts, along with empty assurances that all safety and environmental requirements are being met. If all such requirements were being met by the company, inspected and enforced by the AER, crude oil would have never been released to a waterway.

A recent investigation into the AER’s spill and impact reporting, by Dr. Kevin Timoney referred to the process as using “estimates of convenience,” “guessing” and reports of impacts as “patently false” and “off the scale in terms of believability.” Spill recovery volumes, “too good to be true”, resulting in a “persistent and pervasive danger to society and ecosystems.”

This incident is shaping up as another such case, with impacts that will never be admitted, much less fully remediated by the regulator.
6 hrs

Diana Daunheimer
Under REDA the AER is legally immune from legal action for any of their regulatory action, or inaction, for any legislation, policy, enactment or directive that pertains to resource extraction, including the Water Act. [Alberta Environment and Parks is also legally immune] Also proclaimed in REDA, the AER is not a agent of the Crown and the Public Service Act does not apply to the regulator. Additionally, the AER operates with no public interest or public health mandate.

The AER has no obligation, mandate, even incentive, to operate in the best interest of the public. Their assurances of maintaining environmental and public safety are highly contradicted by the legislation that governs the AER and the fact they are 100% industry funded.

Until the Gov of Alberta reinstates the public interest mandate of the AER, makes them a responsible agent of the Crown, liable to the Public Service Act and eliminates legal immunity for the regulator, the people of Alberta have no reason to trust, or rely upon any action, or inaction of the AER.
39 mins

2012 06 Ernst Replacement Drinking Water Plains Midstream Crude Oil Spill into Red Deer River

Cleanup, testing underway after crude leaks from pipeline west of Bragg Creek by The Canadian Press, March 17, 2017, Calgary Herald
BRAGG CREEK, Alta. — Alberta’s Energy Regulator says a pipeline has leaked crude oil in southwestern Alberta.

AER spokeswoman Monica Hermary says Husky Energy of Calgary reported the spill at Cox Hill Creek on Thursday around 3 p.m.

Cox Hill Creek is about 22 kilometres west of Bragg Creek, an area popular for hiking, camping and other outdoor recreation. [HOLD YOUR BREATH WHILE YOU SKI, PLAY, HIKE AND CAMP, AND DONT EAT THE FISH!]

Hermary says it’s not known how much crude has leaked, but adds the oil has affected the creek.

She says the pipeline was shut in and depressurized on Thursday and no more oil is flowing through that section of the pipeline.

Husky said it has a response team at the site and cleanup efforts are underway, but the company did not say how much oil was spilled.

“As a precaution, water samples are being taken at a nearby culvert,” Kim Guttormson, a Husky spokesman, wrote in an email.

“We are undertaking a thorough investigation of the incident.”

Hermary said the regulator is working with the company to ensure all safety and environmental requirements are met. [TOO LITTLE WAY TOO LATE!  THE DAMAGE IS ALREADY DONE!]

“There are no reported impacts to the public or wildlife at this time,” she said. [If no one is looking, especially willfully not the AER, Alberta Environment and Parks and Husky, who will report the impacts that might be occurring, or have occurred? Regulators and companies are not even competent or concerned enough to prevent the average of two oil spills a day from happening in Alberta. Is anyone stupid enough to believe they’re out looking for impacts to the environment or public? And what of the quick settle and gag orders that companies pound down on impacted citizens, preventing any harm stats from accumulating at the regulators?]

A Husky pipeline rupture last July resulted in 225,000 litres of heavy oil mixed with diluent to spill onto the bank of the North Saskatchewan River in Saskatchewan, with about 40 per cent or 90,000 litres reaching the river.

The spill forced the cities of North Battleford, Prince Albert and Melfort to shut their intakes from the river and find other water sources for almost two months, resulting in costs that Husky pledged to cover.

The company said last month it cost $107 million for the clean up. [Emphasis added]

[Refer also to:

2016 07 26: Deregulation budget-cut style? “It’s a real nuisance. And for some it could become a real health issue. … Can’t drink, can’t shower, can’t wash your clothes.” Prince Albert declares state of emergency; constructs 30 km long drinking water pipeline as Husky’s massive toxic bitumen & diluent slick invades. Who pays for the damages? Saskatchewan averages two oil spills a day, just like Alberta! ]

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