Dear Editor
Ninety-three per cent recovery? Really?
On July 20/21, 225,000 litres of diluted heavy crude oil escaped from a ruptured Husky Energy pipeline into and onto the banks of the North Saskatchewan River near Maidstone. Due to a sudden rise in water level in the river shortly after the spill, the spilled material escaped the booms near the spill site and again at North Battleford. By July 29, the surface oil sheen had continued downstream past the city of Prince Albert.
This would have allowed time for the heavy crude components to attach to sediment in the river and start to sink. Two composite sediment samples taken by E-Tech International on Aug. 16 at Cecil Ferry, 20 kilometres downstream of Prince Albert, showed a definite presence of contaminants in the sediment.
The cleanup has focused on the shoreline, the river surface and on the bank of the river at the spill site. Husky reports indicate that 66,900 litres of the total spill volume soaked into the ground near the spill site. There has been no cleanup attempted on the river bottom and no one knows how much of the heavy crude has sunk to the bottom of the river where it can continue to give off toxins for many years.
In spite of this, Husky and the Saskatchewan government now claim that 93 per cent of the spill has been recovered.
From everything I have read about the recovery of oil spills into water, a 93 per cent recovery is unheard of. Ricardo Segovia, hydrogeologist with E-Tech International, states that a recovery of 50 per cent is considered good. David Schindler, professor of Ecology in the Department of Biological Science at the University of Alberta, goes even further. In an interview with CBC Radio on July 27 about the Husky spill into the North Saskatchewan River, Schindler stated, “The company claims they have removed 40 per cent of the spill. If they have they ought to be commended because that would be a world record. Most spills get around five to 10 per cent. The rest sinks, volatilizes or escapes the booms and other things that they try to catch these things with.
Do Husky and the Saskatchewan government really think that we are gullible enough to believe that they have recovered 93 per cent of the total volume spilled?
Elizabeth Cline
North Battleford
