Husky Oil has been fined $600,000 for releasing a harmful substance into a river in Saskatchewan.
The Calgary-based oil and gas producer pleaded guilty Friday in provincial court to depositing the substance into a waterway full of fish.
The charge came after the release almost four years ago of about 2.8 million litres of process water, a byproduct of oil and gas production and typically high in salt content.
Environment Canada says its enforcement officers responded to notice of a rupture at the Westhazel pipeline in July 2018.
The department says the process water ran over about 450 metres of land and into the Englishman River, a fish-bearing tributary to the North Saskatchewan River, near Turtleford, Sask.
The officers reported dead vegetation, and lab analysis of samples determined the process water was harmful to fish.
The company's name will be added to the Environmental Offenders Registry, and the fine will go into the federal government's Environmental Damages Fund.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 29, 2022.
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The leak went undetected for
The leak went undetected for six (6) days!!!
Husky employees ignored the alarms.
Where have we heard that story before? (Enbridge Kalamazoo River oil spill, Michigan 2010)
Husky was also responsible for a far more serious oil spill in 2016, also in Saskatchewan.
"Husky Energy incident updates from July 2018 said the 'produced water release' was detected July 18 on a line that runs between a Husky water-handling facility and a disposal well in a rural area west of Turtleford.
"At the time, Husky said the leak happened on July 12, 2018.
"Husky Oil Operations Limited will be added to the federal Environmental Offenders Registry in connection with the incident. It is already in the registry for the 2016 oil leak in Saskatchewan that sent an estimated 225,000 litres of blended crude oil into the environment, approximately 40 per cent of which entered the river.
"Despite 'frequent dual alarms,' employees initially blamed temperature fluctuations at a location unrelated to the failure in the Saskatchewan Gathering System — which carries blended crude oil and condensate between Husky’s thermal plants. The affected pipeline was shut down the next morning."
Sask. provincial court judge fines Husky Oil Operations $600K for 2018 process water leak (Apr 29, 2022)
https://thestarphoenix.com/news/local-news/sask-provincial-court-judge-f...
The fine is of course a
The fine is of course a complete joke, a tiny fraction of the cash on hand for this corporation, perhaps as effective as a $50 fine would be to me. Utter nonsense.
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