MELFORT — The owner of a pipeline that spilled into the North Saskatchewan River in 2016 is building a new pipeline crossing the river that incorporates what they’ve learned from the spill.
Husky Midstream held an open house in Melfort at the Legion June 12 to talk about the new pipeline, which will include a 20-inch line to transport crude oil to Lloydminster and an eight-inch line to transport condensate.
When the current pipeline spilled two years ago near Maidstone, Melfort had to switch from drawing water from the river to going back to its old reservoir system, causing a boil water advisory. North Battleford had to hook into Battleford’s water system and Prince Albert built a pipeline to the South Saskatchewan River.
“Coming out of the incident in 2016,” said Travis Davies, a Husky spokesperson at the open house, “it’s important to engage the communities because they are downstream and give them a certain level of comfort that we’ve taken those learnings away and applied them to our new project.”
The new pipeline will cross the river at a new geographically stable area. Instead of cutting away at the river valley and building the pipeline – which ended up shifting soil in a manner that placed pressure on the pipeline, causing it to break – the new pipeline will go into a hillside, be bored in such a way it goes 80 metres under the riverbed and come out of a hillside on the other side of the river.
The steel the pipe is made of is stronger and it will be thicker than regulations require. New technology monitoring the pipe will examine items like acoustics and temperature and report any changes. Improvements have also been made to operating procedures.
Davies said the pipeline will support new projects north of the river.
“This pipeline was planned before our old one failed anyway, so it was going to move forward to support the growth,” he said.
The 150,000-barrel capacity pipeline will generate 250 to 500 jobs during its construction and will ensure there isn’t a need to transport product using 100 trucks per day.
