As of midday on Nov. 4, traffic in the parking lot between Giant Tiger and the Co-Op was still cordoned off while crews worked to clean up an oil spill that happened in St. Paul during the early morning hours.
The Journal acquired a statement on Tuesday morning from Canadian Natural Resources Limited (CNRL), which, in its entirety, read:
“Canadian Natural is working together with the St. Paul Fire Department and Police Department to contain a third party spill that was identified at approximately 4:00 a.m. on Nov. 4, 2014 in the Town of St. Paul. Clean-up activities are underway. Canadian Natural is supporting the investigation to determine the third party responsible.”
According to Ryan Bartlett, a public affairs advisor with Alberta Energy Regulator (AER), the spill stretched farther than the parking lot as the offending truck made its way towards CNRL’s Lindbergh heavy oil cleaning plant, which is located southeast of St. Paul
“The spill was approximately 50 kilometres, I believe, as they travelled down towards the plant,” Bartlett said during a phone call at about 9:10 a.m. “That’s all being cleaned up as we speak. With help from the St. Paul County highway maintenance crews, sand was spread over the oil that leaked onto the highway, and it is being recovered. It was entirely contained on the road surface. None of it went into the ditches or into any water bodies.”
The same could not be said, however, for the initial location of the spill.
“Approximately 400 litres of crude oil entered the town of St. Paul’s storm water system,” Bartlett reported. “It was contained about 250 metres from where it entered the system itself. It didn’t go any further than those 250 metres. It is being removed currently with vacuum trucks, and they are going to be flushing that system out with warm water to remove any of the residual crude oil that might be in there.”
Bartlett said that they have classified the incident as an Alert Level emergency, the least serious level on their four-level scale.
“At this point it is an Alert because everything is contained and cleanup is currently taking place,” he said. “As far as safety goes, the spill has been contained at this point, so safety to the public is not at risk at this time.”
