North Saskatchewan River cleanup to retrieve equivalent of 2 railcars of Husky oil

Saskatchewan's Ministry of Environment is leading a multi-agency response to clean up about 200,000 litres of oil thevolume equivalentof about two railcars' worth that spilled into the North Saskatchewan River on Thursday.

• 200Klitres of oil from Husky Energy pipe leaked into North Saskatchewan River
• Saskatchewan city shuts down water intake due to Husky Energy oil slick

According toHusky Oil, which owns the pipeline,a leak spilled the heavy oil,which ismixedwith a thinning chemical, into the river nearLloydminster, Sask.

The company said it shut the pipelines, which arepart of its Saskatchewan gathering system, to haltthe release of oil.

WesKotyk, executive director of the ministry's Environmental Protection Branch, told reporters at a news conference on Friday morning that about 43,000 litres had been cleaned up so far.

He said Husky Oil had stoppedthe leak and was setting up a containment boom ahead of the oil plume to stop it spreading further.

"Once the plume has been contained and the immediate emergency activities are addressed, we will look into moving into the longer-term remediation and reclamation activities and move to the recovery phase of the response," he said.

He said communities downstream of the spillhad been notifiedandthe spread of the plume was beingmonitored.

The city ofNorthBattleford, which has a three-day supply of water in its reservoirs and water tower,has shut down its water intake plant.

At a news conference on Thursday, Premier Brad Wall told reportersthat although pipelines were an "imperfect" method of moving oil, they were still a safer alternative than rail transportation.

"The facts remain that if we're not moving it by a pipeline, it'll move, and it'll move on a rail," he said.

"And we know that rail, actually, is more susceptible to spills and the spills are often more intense."

He said cleaning up the spill was the immediate priority.

"Obviously this is not something anybody wants to see happen," said Wall.