After a year of disruption due to the Husky oil spill into the North Saskatchewan River, the city is ready to resume regular operations at the F.E. Holliday Water Treatment Plant.
City council has passed a resolution to dismantle the GE pre-treatment filtration system that had been in use since last December, as well as the water line to access water from the Town of Battleford.
The resolution also called for the F.E. Holliday plant, which had not been at full operation since the oil spill, to be returned to its original operations.
Since the oil spill on June 21, 2016, the city has relied on a temporary water line from Battleford as well as four new groundwater wells at Water Treatment Plant No. 1 to make up for the lost water supply from F.E. Holliday.
In December, the G.E. filtration system was brought into use which allowed the city to access the river water again. However, the plant operated at far less than full capacity.
The belief now is that the G.E. filtration equipment is no longer required. According to city manager Jim Puffalt, the treatment process at F.E. Holliday will be “more than adequate” to remove any hydrocarbons found in the future.
The other major concern of city officials had been the possibility that oil could enter and cause major damage to the F.E. Holliday plant. That, too, is no longer a concern.
“The surface samples have been clear for a long time,” Puffalt said.
With F.E. Holliday now returning to full capacity, the Battleford water line is also no longer required. It will be decommissioned as well.
The council decision follows the latest round of meetings on Husky Energy’s shoreline cleanup and water and sediment testing efforts.
On Aug. 21, a meeting was held involving Husky, city officials including council members, the Saskatchewan Water Security Agency, Environment Canada and Climate Change, and Sask Environment on the oil spill recovery process.
A memo from director of utilities Stewart Schafer was circulated to council about the meeting. In that memo, it was noted 94 percent of the oil from the oil spill had been recovered. Moreover, Husky indicated most of the remaining oil is trapped in sediments above the Paynton river crossing near the point of entry.
Tests of raw and treated water at F.E. Holliday plant have also shown no appreciable levels of hydrocarbons from the spill, and all hydrocarbon tests for 2017 have been below maximum limits identified by the regulator committees, according to the same memo.
A further meeting took place Sept. 6 in which Husky reiterated most of the oil had been recovered and the remaining oil was still near the point of entry. Moreover, it was discussed the oil has weathered and would not stick to equipment.
On Monday night, council heard from Chris Meloche, senior manager at Husky Energy, who had previously reported to council in June on the shoreline cleanup. He provided the latest update on the cleanup and recovery efforts.
According to his report, all the cleanup work is done and regulatory endwork criteria has been met for all impacted areas with the exception of a 100-meter section about 19 km downstream from where the spill occurred.
Meloche said they are awaiting permits for that project and it is expected to go ahead this month.
In total, 5,440 water samples and 1,508 sediment samples have been collected. Three-hundred-sixty-one water samples have been collected this year. The river water samples have shown no exceedences of regulatory guideline criteria since Oct. 5 of last year. That program will continue into next year as well.
As for sediment samples, except for one sediment sample taken 8 km downstream from the point of entry of the spill, all the samples had shown no indication of oil from the spill.
Submerged oil detection devices were also deployed at four locations, which also had no detections of mobile or suspended oil.
The conclusion of the report, according to Meloche, was that based on all the work that had been done, in Husky’s belief “we don’t feel that there are any residual 16TAN, the oil, left in the river that would present unacceptable health risks to residents -- from the view of the city, sourced from the river -- or any oil that might be present in the river system that would affect the infrastructure of the F.E. Holliday plant.”
What is next now for the city is the actual process of decommissioning, which according to administration will begin later this week.
That will involve taking down the supply line and the GE filtration system, while getting the FE Holliday plant back up and running. That whole process should take a couple of weeks.
However, the chain link fence and gate, as well as the total hydrocarbon monitoring station at the F.E. Holliday plant, will remain and become city property, according to a city memo from Schafer.
According to Schafer, they had had their dive crews go into the water to make sure the intakes are clear. “We are ready to go,” Schafer said.
With respect to the water line, it will stay in use supplying water from Battleford until Sept. 15. Afterwards, the pipeline will stay charged and in place for a couple more weeks, just in case it is needed again. Puffalt explained they want to ensure that F.E. Holliday can get back up and running again.
Councillor Kevin Steinborn asked if the city might be able to gain access to the water line again in the future if needed. Puffalt responded that the thinking is the pipe will be sold, because “it will degrade over time.” If they need to put in a pipeline again in the future, the best option would be to just buy new pipe, he said.
While Husky did cause the spill, Puffalt noted they had covered the costs for the G.E. filtration and the water line.
“We thank them for being good corporate citizens and for looking after the errors that they caused.”
Mayor Bater also thanked Husky for the regular communication with the city.
Bater and other city officials also thanked the town of Battleford for providing water from their water treatment plant in the aftermath of the oil spill.
“It’s really nice to know we had a friend and neighbour right across the river who was there to help when we needed it,” said Bater.
