Cleanup is ongoing north of Stoughton after an oil spill occurred on late Friday afternoon.
According to a media scrum made available to the Weyburn Review, the Ministry of Environment was notified that 200,000 litres of crude oil leaked from a pipeline on Friday 鈥渁s soon as the leak was detected鈥�. The pipeline is located on Ocean Man First Nations agricultural land.
The pipeline was shut down when the breach was discovered, and the spill is fully contained, the spokesperson said. The source of the leak is not yet known.
Around 170,000 litres was cleaned up from the ground Monday morning, with another 30,000 litres still estimated in the soil. The Ministry of Environment told reporters cleanup work is being handled by Tundra Energy, with oversight by Ministry of Economy officials.
The exact location of the rupture is still to be determined. Work on the remaining contaminated soil is to begin Wednesday and mapping of the size of the spill is underway. It is unknown how long the excavation of the contaminated soil will take.
The Saskatchewan government said the spill on Ocean Man land was not near a water crossing. The spill did cover agricultural land, which was described as a low-lying area with a frozen slough. The spill has not affected air quality or wildlife as of yet, the government said.
The oil spill happened on First Nations land near Stoughton, about 140 kilometres southeast of Regina. The spill covered an approximately 20-metre radius.
There are multiple pipelines in the area of the leak. Until the site is excavated Wednesday, it will not be known which one is responsible. The cost of the oil spill clean-up won鈥檛 be known until it is completed.
This is the second pipeline oil spill in less than a year. In July of 2015, more than 200,000 litres of crude oil spilled into the North Saskatchewan River from a Husky Oil pipeline.
After the Husky Oil pipeline incident, the province had started inspections of all provincial pipelines across the province. The Ministry of Environment noted that their priority for inspections was on water-crossing pipelines. The age or condition of the affected pipeline will not be known until the rupture location is determined.
