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Diesel discrepancy

Officials disagree about fuel clean-up

Derek Neary
Northern News Services

Fort Simpson (Nov 03/00) - A former DIAND employee says he discovered a diesel leak from the Cat camp fuel cache near Sundog Creek during an inspection last year.

"Last fall, we found it (diesel) was dripping from the manhole covers and from the spigot," said former resource management officer Kent Halvorson.

"I took samples from downstream ... and they showed traces of diesel in them, traces of hydrocarbons in them."

Three 10,000 gallon tanks have been on Canadian Zinc Corporation's Cat Camp site -- located 40 kilometres from the Prairie Creek mine, near Nahanni Butte -- for 20 years.

Floyd Adlem, director of operations for DIAND in Yellowknife, disputes the claims of a leak, but does agree diesel was found on the ground.

"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 added 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."

Canadian Zinc, responding to Halvorson's report, had workers on the site, at their own expense, to do some "preventative maintenance" on the tanks, said Adlem.

"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," said company president and CEO Malcolm Swallow said. "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 the site 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.

He couldn't say how much fuel had dripped from the tank in total.

Diesel in creek

Halvorson worked eight years for DIAND but resigned earlier this year to take a job with an environmental consulting company in Calgary.

He 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.

Scott was unaware of any 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 the traces of diesel Halvorson found in the creek may have come from another source.

Halvorson believes it came from the tanks, although he doesn't know for sure how much fuel had leaked altogether.

"There are some gauges on the side and there's a noticeable difference (on the leaky tank)," he said. "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."

Adlem said the gauges 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."

Halvorson is adamant there was a leak. He said he inspected the site about five times while he worked in Simpson, and last fall he said the drum was "dripping pretty good... every seven to 10 seconds or something like that."

There's another 30,000 gallon fuel cache at Grainger River. One of those tanks was leaning so badly five years ago that four 1,000 gallon tanks were flown to the site. Fuel was then pumped into them from the larger tank to lower the centre of gravity, said Halvorson. His last trip to inspect that site was roughly three or four years ago, he said.

Adlem said he doesn't know when the Grainger site was last inspected by DIAND. Scott said environmental protection hasn't inspected the Grainger fuel cache in two years, but it's on the to-do list.

"It's just that we can only do so many in a year," he said. "That one (Grainger) is probably coming up this summer or the next one after, unless of course there's a problem reported there."