Richard Gleeson
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Feb 11/02) - More than three weeks after it occurred, a spill of diesel fuel near a tributary of the Nahanni River has yet to be investigated by federal inspectors.

And estimates of the size of the diesel fuel spill at the CanTung Mine, near Nahanni National Park and the Yukon border, have grown.

When the Jan. 18 spill was first reported, mine owner North American Tungsten Corp. estimated up to 9,080 litres escaped when someone neglected to shut off a valve during a fuel transfer.

The company reported the spill 13 hours after discovering it. The incident was first reported anonymously, by a Yukon truck driver, seven and a half hours before the company called it in.

"The first thing you do is respond to the problem and once you get it under control you report it to the regulatory authorities," said North American Tungsten president Udo von Doehren.

In its final report, American Tungsten upped the estimate to 23,340 litres, including 16,380 recovered and 6,960 in fuel-saturated snow.

Apart from the 60,000 litres estimated by the truck driver, the company's figures are the only ones available, said Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development district manager Ed Hornby, who said last Thursday he has asked an inspector working out of DIAND's Fort Simpson office to visit the mine site this week.

The director of environmental protection for the territorial government, Emery Paquin said the government likely would have reacted sooner if it occurred within its jurisdiction.

"If there was a spill of this volume, and under similar circumstances, for which the GNWT was the lead agency, we would respond with an officer as quickly as possible," Paquin said.

The company also said it was not the first fuel spill caused by someone forgetting to shut off the valve during a fuel transfer -- "small spills have occurred for this reason in the past, including two on Jan. 16 and 17."