Hay River (Jan 15/07) - There appears to be no government regulations covering the storage of fuel in river barges, such as the 50 million litres of diesel on the Hay River this winter.

"We don't have any regulations that specifically cover this practice," said Peter Timonin, Transport Canada's regional director of marine safety for the Prairies and the North.

Transport Canada regulations only cover fuel barges while they are in motion, explained Timonin from Winnipeg.

Former territorial environment minister Michael Miltenberger recently raised the alarm about the fuel stored in barges frozen into the Hay River, calling it a "very high-risk situation" that would threaten Great Slave Lake and the Mackenzie River if there was a spill.

The storage began in the fall, and will eventually fill 22 barges moored at Northern Transportation Company Ltd. (NTCL) facilities.

Despite the lack of formal regulations, Timonin said Transport Canada has taken steps to ensure NTCL is following acceptable procedures in storing the fuel and is receiving full co-operation from the company.

A Transport Canada inspector visited the site late last year and several more visits are planned before the fuel is offloaded and trucked to a diamond mine by ice road later this winter.

The department has also reviewed a spill contingency plan developed by NTCL and Diavik diamond mine, which owns the fuel.

However, Timonin said Transport Canada has no power to approve the plan, because of the lack of regulations. "But we made recommendations."

The department is consulting with operators and drawing up draft guidelines to cover such fuel storage in the future, he said, noting it may happen again especially if the Mackenzie Valley pipeline is built.

However, he admitted the guidelines will have no force of law. "That's why they're called guidelines."

Timonin said Transport Canada may introduce regulations in the future to cover the storage practice.

Such storage happened in the 1970s in the Mackenzie Delta, but no regulations were developed as a result.

"It may have been seen as a temporary measure," Timonin said. "It's evidently becoming more of a common procedure."

NTCL is also storing five million litres of diesel fuel for a mining company on barges frozen into Baker Lake, Nunavut.

In 2004, the company had 28 barges at two different locations in the Beaufort Sea to supply fuel to winter drilling operations.

When he was territorial environment minister, Miltenberger tried to discover which federal department or agency had authority over such fuel storage - Transport Canada, Fisheries and Oceans, the Coast Guard, or Environment.

However, he could not find anyone responsible.

"There is a huge vacuum by the federal government," he said.

Miltenberger noted the barges are single-hulled, while fuel on land would have to be in double-walled tanks. The federal government has jurisdiction over the river, while territorial laws would apply if the fuel was stored on land.

The NWT should have the authority to protect its environment, he said. "And not be stuck with a federal government that's stumbling around."

The Thebacha MLA also dismissed the idea o developing guidelines. "They have no authority to impose anything."

Sunny Munroe, the communications manager with NTCL, said the company would support regulations.

"That would make things easier for us," she said. "There would be no ambiguities."

Munroe said the company is doing all it can to store the fuel properly, noting the ice-class barges are inspected and licensed. "They are being used in a manner consistent with their design."

Fuel levels in the barges are monitored daily. The storage sites also have 24-hour security and only trained and certified workers pump the fuel on and off the barges.

A spill control consultant hired by NTCL will also be conducting two spill control courses this week.

And Munroe said Transport Canada is watching everything very closely.

The fuel is being stored in Hay River because of last year's short winter road season, which forced Diavik to fly some fuel from the South. This year, the mine decided to store the fuel closer to the winter road so it can be offloaded and trucked to the mine site.