Husky spill report in hands of Ministry of Justice

A Ministry of Economy report on the Husky oil spill incident of July 21 2016 is now in the hands of the Ministry of Justice.

Energy and Resources Minister Dustin Duncan announced the news Thursday.

The government has confirmed that Justice is now reviewing the investigation into Husky’s response to the spill. While the technical review of the spill done in partnership between the Ministries of the Economy, Environment and the Water Security Agency, along with support from Skystone International, is now complete, the government is indicating the full report won’t be released until all prosecution processes and any appeals have been concluded.

While the final report is not being made public, a statement of substantive findings of the investigation has been made available as of Thursday.

According to the government’s statement: the pipeline break was due to mechanical cracking in a buckle in the pipeline. The buckle was caused by ground movement on the slope occurring over many years and investigators concluded the slope movement was not a sudden, one-time event.

The volume of spilled material is approximately 225 cubic metres, with 60 per cent contained or recovered on land prior to entry into the river.

Those findings were more or less in line with what was previously reported by Husky in mid-November, in a report that was filed with the Ministry of the Economy. 

According to the government’s news release, they were notified of the spill when a member of the public reported an oil slick on the river near Tobey Nollet Bridge around 8:30 a.m. Two staff members from the Ministry of the Economy were sent to the bridge 10 minutes later to investigate. When they arrived around 9:35 a.m., they confirmed a significant amount of oil on the river. The source was not immediately known.

Ministry staff contacted Husky at 9:50 a.m. to advise it of the incident and ask if they had any knowledge of the spill. At 10 a.m. Husky contacted the Ministry to confirm the incident was located at its crossing upstream of the bridge.

Investigators concluded the leak began July 20, the day before the spill was discovered. The pipeline’s dual alarm leak detection systems were issuing notices to the operators of potential problems prior to the spill, and continued until the system was shut down for scheduled maintenance at 7:15 a.m. July 21.

The government states Husky’s response to the alarms has been extensively investigated, and the details concerning their reasons for not shutting down the system are being reviewed by the Ministry of Justice.

In the wake of the spill, a number of changes are coming, says Duncan.

“Since the Husky spill in July, we’ve recognized that we need to do better when it comes to preventing incidents,” Duncan said in a statement. “The changes announced today will help ensure that workers and the environment are well protected moving forward.”

According to the government’s news release, those include:

Passage of the Pipelines Amendment Act, 2016 (Bill 43) by the end of spring session, which the government says will provide the foundation for strengthening regulatory requirements for pipelines.  

The Ministry of the Economy will start work on a compliance audit of integrity management programs of companies operating pipelines across major water crossings.  

The ministry also will work with stakeholders and third-party experts to develop appropriate regulatory standards for water crossings. 

They will also review the design of legacy water crossings to determine if additional measures may be needed to manage geotechnical risk, and work to ensure deficiencies in older designs are addressed by operators in terms of the integrity management practices or new mitigation measures.