UPDATE: Oil Spill In Alberta Reached 28,000 Barrels; Biggest in Province Since 1975
CALGARY(Dow Jones)--Alberta regulators Wednesday greatly increased their estimate of the size of an oil spill last week in the western Canadian province, boosting it to 28,000 barrels and making it the largest spill in the province since 1975.
The spill, on the Rainbow pipeline system--owned by a unit of Plains All American Pipeline LP(PAA)--was first reported over the weekend by regulators, who characterized it as "significant" at the time, but initially estimated the size in the hundreds of barrels.
It was the second spill in Alberta in a matter of days and comes at a time of significantly heightened scrutiny of pipeline safety across North America. A 20,000-barrel spill in 2010 in Michigan caused a political firestorm in Washington.
More recently, American environmentalists have raised pipeline safety on both sides of the border as key in their opposition to increased oil-sands imports from Canada. And earlier this week, BP PLC agreed to pay a $25-million fine over two Alaskan spills in 2006 that dumped just over 5,000 barrels of oil onto the Arctic tundra.
The 600-mile Rainbow pipeline runs from northern Alberta to Edmonton, the province's capital, where it then sends oil south to the U.S. The pipeline transports up to 220,000 barrels of oil a day. The cause of the leak is still being investigated.
Officials said the oil spill has been contained along the pipeline's right-of-way and in nearby pools of stagnant water. About 100 workers are on the scene, working to contain the oil, repair the line and skim oil from the water. There has been no migration of oil from the contained area, Alberta's Energy Resources Conservation Board said in a release Wednesday.
The spill occurred in a fairly isolated stretch of boreal forest in northern Alberta, about four miles from the nearest homes in Little Buffalo, Alberta.
A First Nations, or aboriginals, community in Little Buffalo, along with an organizer for the environmental group Greenpeace, issued a statement Wednesday saying local officials had closed a nearby school, and that some residents had reported nausea, burning eyes and headaches after the spill.
A spokesman for Alberta's environmental ministry Trevor Gemmell said air-quality monitoring showed hydrocarbon levels and other contaminants were well below guidelines.
"There is no health risk," he said.