Time for Husky Energy to come clean, in more ways than one

Dear Editor

At a recent community meeting at the North Battleford Library concerning this July’s pipeline break and oil spill, two things quickly became apparent.

The first was that not enough people in the area are genuinely incensed by the environmental mess that has been visited upon us, nor do many of us have any real understanding of the scale of the situation.

The other point that’s glaringly obvious from the independent assessment conducted by E-Tech International’s Ricardo Segovia is that the fault for the release of at least 250,000 liters of raw crude oil into our beloved river lies entirely with the company who owns and maintains the pipeline, Husky Energy.

Segovia delivered his comprehensive and damning report to a small gathering of concerned citizens and representatives from nearby First Nations and its findings left everyone present exasperated and outraged.

It’s apparent the pipeline was leaking for a significant period of time before someone noticed something was amiss. Why did it take so long for emergency teams to descend on the site and commence a fix? Why were nearby residents not warned of potential toxic airborne byproducts? Why has Husky Energy failed to disclose maintenance records regarding the section of pipeline in question and why have they refused to make available a detailed breakdown of their hundreds of water quality tests?

Further, why has our government, ministries of environment and water, been so silent and cowed? What about their role as industry watchdogs and keepers of the public interest? Instead, our elected officials and their representatives appear willing to do whatever is necessary to absolve Husky Energy of their legal and ethical responsibilities toward those most affected by their actions. Indeed, the bureaucrats and functionaries in question are falling all over themselves downplaying the seriousness of the spill and its long-term consequences on marine life and habitat.

It is time to radically alter the tone of this entire unfortunate affair.

To begin with, Husky Energy must be compelled to release all relevant information in a timely manner. The government bodies in question must use whatever powers are available to them to access Husky’s database, determine what went wrong and if there was actual negligence or malfeasance involved. Husky Energy, not Saskatchewan taxpayers, must pay the full cost of restoring the river system, removing as much oil as is technologically and environmentally feasible. Meanwhile, our provincial government and their municipal partners should take steps to establish a regular regime of ongoing testing of the water and river sediment that must continue for the near future and possibly as long as a decade.

An oil leak at Kalamazoo, Mich. back in 2010 might provide an instructive example. It was a far larger spill, but in many respects (ruptured pipeline, Alberta bitumen-rich crude, long period of time before leak discovered), it presents numerous similarities to our situation. Since 2010, Enbridge, responsible for the pipeline to Kalamazoo, has spent in excess of a billion dollars trying to restore the river’s ecosystem and the results still aren’t great.

Is Husky Oil committed to bearing the full cost of clearing the North Saskatchewan River of the toxic waste their pipeline disgorged? Will they pledge to do a better job than their counterparts at Enbridge? Does our provincial government possess the courage to hold their corporate feet to the fire?

The people who have seen their primary water source, this ageless beauty of a river defiled, would like some clarity and they would like some answers—from Husky Oil, our MLAs, and those agencies with a mandate to license and inspect critical pieces of infrastructure before catastrophic failures occur.

We anxiously await their response.

Cliff Burns

North Battleford