Clean up of Imperial Oil spill in northern Alberta underway

Around 843,000 litres of crude bitumen and salt water leaked from a pipeline northwest of Cold Lake last week.

About 843,000 litres of crude bitumen and salt water leaked from an Imperial Oil pipeline in northern Alberta last week.

The spill happened on April 9 about 32 kilometres northwest of Cold Lake.

Imperial Oil’s teams responded immediately to stop and contain the leak, spokesperson Lisa Schmidt told CTV News Edmonton on Thursday.

“We are sorry this incident has occurred; cleanup and remediation activities are underway. We have trained personnel assessing the site and are continuing to monitor the area,” Schmidt said in a statement.

Both Imperial Oil and the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) are investigating the cause.

The leak consisted of 172,000 litres of crude bitumen and 671,000 litres of salt water.

No impacts to water bodies or wildlife have been reported.

AER is overseeing the cleanup, which it described as 90-per cent complete on Thursday.

The agency said a wildlife mitigation and management plan is being implemented, which includes deterrents like snow fencing around the perimeter of the leak and bird deterrents. A third-party wildlife biologist has also done an initial wildlife sweep and the area is swept daily.

Imperial Oil says it notified local communities and the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER), and representatives from the Cold Lake First Nations visited the site last week.