An investigation into the May 22 oil spill at the Co-op refinery in Regina is being deemed low risk downstream according to the Water Security Agency (WSA).
A statement from Federated Co-op Limited (FCL) on May 30 said an unknown amount of oil spilled into city sewers, eventually showing irregularities when being analyzed by wastewater treatment plant operators. FCL further stated there was no threat to the natural environment.
Unifor 594, the union that represents locked out refinery employees during the nearly six-month labour dispute with FCL, is concerned that the City of Regina did not send out a notification about the incident until it was first reported by the media a week later.
Patrick Boyle, a spokesperson with the WSA, said it’s being called a spill, but it’s a little different compared to usual oil spills into the environment.
When the issue was discovered at the wastewater treatment plant, workers were able to divert what was happening into one of their lagoons.
“There’s a treatment system that happens and it is effectively contained within that,” explained Boyle. “What we have asked the city to do is to increase monitoring testing downstream to make sure there are no impacts.”
Early stages of the investigation show strong winds resulted in a discharge of sludge into the sewage system.
The WSA will be working to provide a full assessment of what happened at the refinery that day. Boyle said there are still questions left unanswered at this time.
“We’re still trying to better understand it and the amount and what kind of oil it was,” added Boyle. “We don’t yet no that, but that will probably coming in the next number of days.”
