The Red Deer River is in good health according to Alberta Environment officials.
At a recent meeting between the Red Deer River Municipal User Group (to which Drumheller is a member), Plains Midstream, and Alberta Government officials municipalities were assured there is no threat to water supplies.
Mayor Terry Yemen and CAO Ray Romanetz attended the meeting on behalf of Drumheller.
“The additional people in the room were the regulating bodies from the Alberta government, who basically said the incident should not have happened, but the company is doing everything they can to correct things,” said Yemen.
Late in the evening on June 7, the Rangeland South Pipeline released up to 3,000 barrels (475,000 litres) of hydrocarbons into Jackson Creek, a tributary of the Red Deer River.
Since then, Plains Midstream, who owns the pipeline has been working under the supervision of the provincial government to clean up the spill.
“It was an unfortunate situation [the spill], it shouldn’t have happened,” said Mayor Yemen. “The company has taken full responsibility for what has happened. Quite frankly, they don’t know what happened yet. The piece of ruptured pipe is still in there.”
There have been several tests to determine the concentration of hydrocarbons in the river.
“The first test they did showed some high numbers. They’ve continued with two tests and there hasn’t been significant hydrocarbons,” said Yemen.
When visiting the site, Yemen could smell the sulphur odour of the hydrocarbons, but water samples continue to show results within Alberta’s standards and do not pose a health risk to humans.
“The regulators and the people charged with looking after the spill don’t anticipate any additional problems,” said Yemen.
