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Impact of produced water spill still being assessed

Article Origin

Author

By Shari Narine Sweetgrass Contributing Editor DENE THA' FIRST NATION

Volume

20

Issue

8

Year

2013

Despite assurances to the contrary, the Dene Tha’ First Nation is concerned about the impact a 9,500 cubic metre produced water spill will have on land in their traditional territory.

Apache Canada Ltd. notified the Energy Resources Conservation Board on June 1 about the spill, which occurred less than 15 km north of a Dene Tha’ reserve and within 1.5 km of the Zama River, and covered an area of approximately 42.8 hectares. The company immediately shut the line in and eliminated the source. However, it is undetermined what caused the breach.

Bob Curran, spokesperson with the ERCB, says Apache contacted the Dene Tha’ First Nation “in the first few days of the incident.” However, the ERCB didn’t contact the Dene Tha’ or issue a public statement until June 12.

 “(Apache) took quite a bit of time to delineate the extent of the impact and that was the delay. So when we got the volume what they were dealing with… up until that point we had no indications the volumes were that significant,” said Curran.

As “spills do occur in Alberta,” Curran said statements are not issued unless the spill has a public impact, environmental impact or if there is an ongoing operational issue, such as an inability to shut down the line.

“The environmental impact we were uncertain about and of course we’re not the experts on that. Until June 12, we really didn’t understand how big the impact area actually was,” said Curran.

In a news release issued by the Dene Tha’, the band expressed concern that the spill “may contain a number of materials, including hydrocarbons, sulphurous compounds, metals, radioactive materials and chemicals that have contaminated the water and may have killed fish, birds and wildlife. Dene Tha’ is also gravely concerned that the health of its members will be compromised if they exercise their Treaty 8 rights to harvest in the area.”

Curran describes produced water as “generally brackish water so it has a high saline content and that’s what we’re dealing with here, although the stuff they were injecting also had trace amounts of oil about 200 parts per million.”

Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resource Development is in the process of doing water sampling, wildlife surveys and vegetation assessments to determine the impact, says department spokesperson Nikki Booth.

No results will be made public until the investigation is completed and no timeline has been set for that.

“Investigations we work hard to be diligent and thorough with them and considering the clean-up is still ongoing, the investigation will take as much time as required in order to get all the information compiled,” said Booth.

She adds that how long the line had been leaking is also part of the investigation.

A Dene Tha’ field technician who visited the site on June 6 noted that all plants and trees affected by the spill had died, and that the contamination had saturated the muskeg in the area. “Given the amount of dead vegetation in the area … Dene Tha’ worries that the spill may have been occurring for a long period of time, although Apache has advised the pipeline breach was reported on June 1,” said the news release.

Booth says the department has reviewed monitoring and remediation plans put in place by Apache Canada.

“While our priority right now is remediation and restoration, we are investigating the cause and will develop a solution to prevent a similar incident,” said Apache Canada in a FAQ posted on the company’s website.

Also, in Lubicon Lake traditional territory, a pipeline operated by Penn West Exploration, leaked more than 600,000 litres of produced water and 5,000 litres of oil. Co-ordination of clean-up efforts is being hampered by flooding at the company’s head office in Calgary, but the company says the 1.8-hectare spill site has been sealed off.  Penn West said in a news release that “a failure in a produced water pipeline” was identified on June 19.  The Lubicon Lake First Nation says the spill took place in an area that is the proposed location of future reserve lands.