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2 Tuesday July 21 2015 ENVIRONMENT PIPELINE SPILL NEWS BRIEFS Yellowknife Bay houseboat goes down in flames A houseboat moored next to Joliffe Island in Yellowknife went up in ames last weekend and though its resident was able to escape without injury the oating home was left destroyed.According to the police reportthe local re department received a call to attend the re around 530 a.m. on July 17. Emergency crews used a boat to transport re ghters between the public dock and the island and ew police to the site with assistance from Air Tindi. The re is suspected to have been caused by a propane heater. Police investigate sudden death in Inuvik InuvikRCMPhavecompletedapreliminaryinvestigationinto thedeathofafemalecommunitymemberthoughacauseof death has not yet been determined. The woman was found deceased inside a residence on Boot Lake Road some time before 1200 p.m. on July 15 when police received a call for service.RCMPhavebeenworkingontheinvestigationwith theOfceoftheChiefCoroneroftheNWT.Outofrespectfor thedeceasedthewomansnameisbeingwithheldbypolice. Seven arrested as a result of 856 Gang investigation Seven suspects have been arrested in connection to an in- vestigation into the 856 Gang in Yellowknife. Four suspects were apprehended when RCMP executed two warrants on July16forcrimesincludingdrugtrafckingandpossession possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose and pos- session of property obtained by crime. Later that day three more were arrested during a trafc stop. Criminal charges have been laid against six of the seven individuals all of whomhavebeenremandedtocustodyuntilalatercourtdate. INTERIOR HEAVY EQUIPMENT Operator School www.IHESCHOOL.com Call Now 1-866-399-3853 Housing Transportation Packages Available NO SIMULATORS JOB ASSISTANCE FOR LIFE NEVER SHARE MACHINES START ANY MONDAY GET TRAINED. GET WORKING. By MEAGAN WOHLBERG In one of the worst leaks in Albertas history a Nexen Nexen pipeline spills 5 million litres near Fort McMurray Leak detection system failed First Nations worried about permanent environmental damage Energy pipeline spilled around ve million litres of emulsionlastweekatitsLong Lake oilsands facility. The leak was discovered last Wednesday afternoon at a site approximately 36 km southeast of Fort McMurray. The pipeline was carrying emulsion a mixture of bitu- menproducedwaterandsand. Around 31500 barrels are estimatedtohavespilledover anarea16000square-metres in size mostly within a com- pacted pipeline corridor ac- cordingtothecompanywhich said the leak was stopped as of Thursday morning. TheAlbertaEnergyRegula- torAERwhichisconducting its own investigation into the spillandensuringthecleanup of the area issued an envi- ronmental protection order for the company on Friday. TheorderinstructsNexento containthespillalertaffected partiesanddevelopacleanup planincludingtestingforcon- taminantslikehydrocarbons. According to the AER the area impacted is mostly lim- ited to the pipeline right of way which includes muskeg buthasnotimpactedawater- body. There are no reported impacts to the public or wild- life at this time though the AER has directed Nexen to implement a wildlife protec- tion plan for the area. Ron Bailey senior vice president for Nexens Cana- dian operations apologized for the leak at a press confer- ence Friday morning. He said the leak came from a visible burst in the double-walled high-pressure pipeline built in 2014. We are deeply concerned with this and we sincerely apologize for the impact that this has caused he said. We willtakeeverystepthatwesee asreasonableandastheregu- lators help us decide what to do to respond to this. Bailey said the company doesnt know how long the emulsion was leaking be- cause the pipelines warn- ing system failed to detect the break which was only discovered by a contractor walking along the pipeline. Our investigation is look- ing through exactly why that wasnt alerting us earlier Bailey said. AERsprotectionorderalso directsthecompanytodevelop waterbodyandwildlifemitiga- tion plans as well as detailed delineation and remediation plans. Daily reports are to be publishedonlineandanalre- portistobesubmittedwithin 30daysofcompletingthework outlined in the order. Nexen has started uid re- covery installation of a wild- life fence and bird deterrents and is beginning an environ- mental sampling program. The leak is one of the worst in Albertas history. The Plains Midstream Canada pipeline leak of 2011 which saw 4.5 million litres of crude oilspillnearthe LubiconCree community of Little Buffalo in northern Alberta was previously the largest in the province in 35 years. Spills are treaty violations chief First Nations downstream from the leak said the spill highlights the dangers of a poorly regulated industry thatviolatestheirtreatyrights. Leaders of the Fort Mc- Murray First Nation said they are extremely concerned about the magnitude of the spill located 10 km from their reserve especially regarding the impact on the muskeg. The full magnitude of the spillofbitumencouldpossibly be only one fourth of possible volume of tainted water the First Nations industry rela- tions corporation said. FirstNationsfurtherdown- stream agreed. A spill this size into the muskeg which is an impor- tant part of the ecosystem in the region and house many of our medicines berries and habitat for species our peo- ple rely on for sustenance is extremely serious said Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation Chief Allan Adam of Fort Chipewyan. The muskeg are a part of the basin and feed into the groundwater system the lo- cation of the spill is danger- ously close to the Clearwater River that ows directly into the Athabasca River. The re- percussionsfromtheincident could potentially be felt far and wide by those that rely on the Athabasca Basin. Adam said its time for government and industry to come to terms with the fact that First Nations rights and title are interdependent with healthy ecosystems. Ifwecontinuetoacceptthat thesetypesofincidentsarethe statusquoofdevelopmentwe are also accepting the illegal abrogation of the rights and titleof FirstNationshesaid. Nexen is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Chinese state- ownedcompanyCNOOCLtd. TheLongLakeoperationuses in situ steam assisted gravity drainage as well as hydro- crackingandgasication.Pro- ductionatthefacilityis72000 barrels per day of bitumen. A leak in the pipeline shipping bitumen to Nexens Long Lake oilsands facility near Fort McMurray was discovered last week. PhotoDavidDodgePembinaInstitute