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MILNE INLET - Fuel escaping from a storage bladder at Baffinland's Milne Inlet bulk fuel site earlier this summer was contained from the environment but not reported for a month.

"What we had in Mary River was a failure of a bladder," said Michael Nadler, Nunavut's regional director general for Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC).

"A bladder broke and all the fuel inside, around 150,000 litres, went into secondary containment."

Both Baffinland and INAC personnel said while there was a spill, the fuel was not released into the environment.

"There was never a spill to the receiving environment," said Derek Chubb, vice-president of sustainable development with Baffinland. "It was contained within the engineered facility and contained from the environment."

Baffinland has a storage area with more than 70 fuel bladders - each containing around 100,000 litres of fuel - at Milne Inlet, 100 km west of the Mary River mine site, which is around 160 km south of Pond Inlet. The bladders are stored in a containment facility which Nadler described as a football field-sized gravel pit surrounded by a berm designed to contain any spills.

The bladder failed on June 16 but was not reported to INAC until July.

Nadler said because there was no release of fuel into the environment, Baffinland was not required to report the spill.

"Some folks have expressed concern that Baffinland did not declare a spill. But by most definitions of a spill, there was not one," he said. "In fact, they kind of went beyond expectation by advising us that a bladder failed."

INAC sent inspectors to the site immediately after they were advised of the spill on July 23.

Since the containment facility is designed to hold liquids, it collects rainwater. Nadler said the company is being tasked with separating the fuel from the spill from water accumulated within the facility.

"We gave them specific direction on our expectation for how to treat the contaminated water in the containment facility, and that is what they are following through on now," he said. "What they have in there now is a mix of fuel and water, which they are cleaning." Nadler added they are processing it through charcoal-based cleaning.

"It's quite costly but it's what they have to do under their water licence," he said.

Nadler said INAC inspectors visit the half dozen major project sites in the territory about four times a year. He said inspectors would have discovered the spill themselves had it not been reported.

Nadler added INAC has given Baffinland advice on how to mitigate future bladder accidents.

"We have given some direction to the company on our expectations around their future management of bladders to try to avoid future failure," he said.

Since May 18, Baffinland Iron Mines Corporation has reported at least four other spills at their Mary River site.

According to spill reports, collected from Nunavut's environment department, Baffinland reported two diesel spills of 200 litres or less and two raw sewage spills over the summer.

One spill, occurring on June 15, was of 600 litres of sewage which affected four square metres of land.

Another spill, on June 19, contaminated two square metres with 200 litres of untreated sewage.

A spill report is required for any spill over 20 litres.

Chubb said while most of the spills Baffinland reports are fairly minor events, the company takes all spills seriously.

"We have a spill plan in place to make sure all spills are captured and reported properly so there is not a risk."