Signs of diesel leak 'very minor' -- Scott
Derek Neary
Northern News Services
Fort Simpson (Nov 13/00) - Diesel fuel may have been leaking from a cache near Nahanni Butte for about a year, according to a former resource management officer.
Kent Halvorson, who spent eight years with the DIAND and resigned earlier this year to take a job with an environmental consulting firm in Calgary, said he discovered a leak last fall.
"We found it (diesel) was dripping from the manhole covers and from the spigot. I took samples from downstream ... and they showed traces of diesel and hydrocarbons."
Three 10,000-gallon tanks have been on the site -- located 40 kilometres from the Prairie Creek minesite -- since 1980. The fuel was put there by the Hunt Brothers, who were the mine's original owners.
Canadian Zinc, formerly San Andreas Resources, bought the minesite in 1991. The company's application to reopen an access road to reclaim the fuel is under environmental review.
Matter of time
Halvorson said the fuel must have migrated through the ground to enter the fish-inhabited creek, which was half to three-quarters of a mile from the tank. Halvorson added it came from the tanks, although he doesn't know for sure how much fuel had leaked altogether.
"My idea before I left there was to do something about it because it's getting into the environment and we've got proof of it ... it's just a matter of time before those tanks fail further."
Halvorson says there was a leak, adding he inspected the site about five times while working in Fort Simpson, and last fall he said the drum was "dripping pretty good ... every seven to 10 seconds or something like that."
Floyd Adlem, DIAND operations director in Yellowknife, says there never was a leak but diesel was found on the ground. And if there is a leak, DIAND's position is that it would be Canadian Zinc's responsibility.
"There hadn't been a spill but there's always an opportunity for it. The tanks are old," he said. "It (the fuel) may have been out of a barrel or something, we don't know. It could have been anything -- overflowed fuel when they're fuelling up a Cat or something."
Adlem said the gages are faulty. He said even a small amount of fuel could have leeched into the creek.
"The rain or whatever would sink into the soil so even a small amount could be found away from the site. It wouldn't have to be a huge spill or anything," he said. "I don't know, I wasn't there."
Adlem adds the fuel should have been cleaned up.
"It's one of those things perhaps, from our point of view, if we'd have had more resources we would have been in and inspected it more often," Adlem said.
Unaware of water samples
Canadian Zinc, responding to Halvorson's report, paid workers to do "preventative maintenance" on the tanks, Adlem said.
Canadian Zinc president and CEO Malcolm Swallow said, "There was some concern about sweating or weepage in one of the gaskets. They just tightened up the bolts around the inspection hatch and put some (sealant) around it and I think that cured the problem. If it leaks, it will be one of those things that you're not going to know about. You're certainly not going to be able to inspect it on a regular basis."
Adlem said he believes DIAND returned to inspect Canadian Zinc's work.
Neil Scott, head of enforcement for the Environmental Protection Branch, said one of the fuel tanks had showed signs of a diesel leak, but he described it as "very minor."
During an inspection in late August, after Canadian Zinc addressed the problem, Scott said there was no further evidence of a leak, adding he couldn't say how much had dripped from the tank in total.
Scott was unaware of the water samples indicating the presence of diesel and hydrocarbons.
"That was not part of the report we got," he said. "We checked between the tank and Prairie Creek itself, we dug down as far as we could, and there was no indication along the obvious drainage areas that there was any hydrocarbons in the soil."
He added traces of diesel Halvorson found in the creek may have come from another source.
As well as the cache near Prairie Creek, there's also a 30,000-gallon fuel cache at Grainger River along Prairie Creek Mine's dormant access road. Five years ago, says Halvorson, one tank was listing badly and replacement tanks were flown in.
It is unclear when the Grainger site is due for its next inspection, but Scott says it's on DIAND's to-do list.
