Weyburn - In an Oct. 7 interview, two weeks prior to Husky’s request for an extension for filing its report on the July 21 spill, Energy and Resources Minister Dustin Duncan said, “We have taken some interim steps. Obviously we’ll have to have a more fulsome response to the findings of our investigation and Husky’s investigation. But as an interim step, what we have done is begun an inspection of any pipeline crossings under bodies of water that are potable water sources. We’ve identified an initial about 40 high priority crossings, and maybe another 90 after that. We had our field staff go out and visually inspect pipelines as they come out of ground and go underground, where they cross a body of water that provides a potable water source.
“To date, we haven’t any causes for concern. But we did want to, as an interim step, be able to assure people that especially potable water sources need to be protected. That work is still underway.”
The initial priority list included the North and South Saskatchewan Rivers, Souris River, Battle River, Swift Current Creek.
Asked about the necessity of pipelines crossing water bodies like rivers, he responded, “If you take the North and South Saskatchewan Rivers, that basically bisects the province from southwest to the northeast. I think people just have to realize, yes, we do have thousands of kilometres of pipeline underground. Some of its oil. Some is natural gas. We’re in Weyburn right now for this interview, there’s not a home in this city that doesn’t have a pipeline to it to provide natural gas.
“It does mean we have to be very diligent and vigilant in our responsibilities as a regulator and operators have to fulfill their commitments as well. These types of incidents, we certainly want to avoid them in the future.
“Our interim measure has two parts. One is sending field staff to visually inspect pipelines that do go under a body of water that provides for a potable water source. They’re looking to see has there been construction in the area that had an impact on the pipeline? Is there slumping that is visual to the naked eye?
“They also have the ability to go back to the regulator. Hopefully there’s nothing on a visual level that they see. They can go back, as the regulator, to look at their compliance measures and see their compliance with CSA guidelines,” Duncan said.
While the ministry can ask for smart pigging (internal, robotic inspection) of these lines, he said they are not doing that at this time unless something is flagged during the inspection or compliance follow up.
