Transport submerged in Lake Nipigon for more than three weeks

A tractor-trailer has been sitting in Lake Nipigon in northwestern Ontario since mid-January after police say the rig lost control during poor weather.

A family-owned resort on Lake Nipigon in northwestern Ontario is concerned about a transport truck that has been in the water next to their property since mid-January.

McCollum’s Reflection Lake Resort has been owned by the family since 1945.

The owners told CTV News that is not uncommon for drivers to go into the guard rails on the section of Highway 11 near the lake – this is the first crash that they feel could really impact fishing and drinking water for people living in the area.

Shaughn McCollum said his father Lawrence, who owns the resort, was there when it happened and said he heard the crash.

“My dad did speak with the tow drivers and the OPP (Ontario Provincial Police) as well as the driver,” he said.

“He told them that it wouldn’t be there in the morning and I actually have a photo of that exact spot, less than two weeks before and it was open water.”

Acting OPP Sgt. Hayley Mcleary confirmed that the Nipigon detachment responded to a single motor vehicle collision around 12:30 p.m. on Jan. 12.

She said that the tractor-trailer unit lost control due to poor weather conditions breaking through the guard rail and came to rest on the ice. Mcleary added no injuries were reported in the incident and no charges pending.

Kim McCollum said she estimates there have been over a dozen accidents on this stretch of highway since last summer including one that happened today.

“This Sunday another truck hit the guardrails and took them out again and all of these accidents, they’re not always in the winter – they can’t always be blamed on road conditions,” she said.

“It’s more or less the trucking companies and the inexperienced drivers … We’ve spoken to drivers that have crashed and flipped their trucks and a lot of them tell us, ‘Oh yeah, this is my first year driving.’”

Kim said others have told the family that this was their first trip in Canada.

The family told CTV News that they feel there should be a rule that says unless you’ve been driving a certain number of years you have to stay off of the dangerous roads in northern Ontario – especially in the winter.

The truck in the lake belongs to Nishan Transport based out of Montreal, QC.

The company’s safety manager Alex Bardos said the Nishan has dash cam footage which shows the truck crashing into the guard rails which appear to have been previously broken.

The company said the vehicle was transporting aluminum sheets and that the cost of recovery is estimated at more than $2 million.

Shaughn said the truck is still sitting 500ft off-shore in approximately 30 feet of deep water.

“We are just really concerned,” he said.

“I can’t comfortably tell a customer that we have a safe beach for you to swim at, or I don’t know if I should let my dog swim in the lake, because potentially what damage can come to them from exposure to diesel fuel or motor oil or everything else and it’s a fishing resort.”

Shaughn said he does not know what he is going to tell customers.

“Yeah, you can fish right in front of your cabin – but I don’t know if you can eat the fish that you catch,” he said trying to come up with something.

“It’s it does have an impact on us.”

Ministry of the Environment spokesperson Gary Wheeler told CTV News the spill was reported to its Spills Action Centre on Jan. 12 and the following day staff attended the accident scene noticing an odour consistent with diesel fuel.

“The Ministry has taken samples at distances safe to sample around the submerged vehicle,” he said.

“Laboratory analyses of these results show concentrations below Ministry standards for all the parameters analyzed.”

The samples were evaluated based on Ontario Drinking Water Standards and provincial water quality objectives.

Ministry officials said that, as a precaution, additional containment will be deployed prior to the vehicle extraction.

Wheeler said the Ministry’s role is to ensure the responsible party is taking action to contain any potential contamination, remediate the area and restore the site to previous conditions as soon as is practical.

“Ministry staff advised the responsible party (the owner of the vehicle) of their obligations under the Environmental Protection Act and the responsible party is voluntarily undertaking appropriate action – including retaining a qualified environmental remediation professional, to contain, clean up and remediation the spill location,” he said.

“This includes retrieval of the transport.”

Wheeler explained that the plan to remove the tractor-trailer includes the use of two large cranes and divers but first, a temporary bypass lane needs to be constructed.

The work is expected to occur over a 10 to 14-day period and the Ministry said a tentative date of Feb. 14 is when the process of removing the vehicle will begin.