IQALUIT - The Nunavut Housing Corporation will be footing the bill for the clean-up of an oil spill caused by a leaky heating oil tank in Iqaluit.

This is what one corner of the parking lot at unit 4002 Road To Nowhere looked like on May 10 after a heating oil tank attached to the building leaked, causing a fuel spill. Booms contained the spill and crews were on site for several days to clean up the mess. As of May 13 oil residue was still on the ground and new tanks were being installed. - Emily Ridlington/NNSL photo

"Quick thinking and action limited the spread," said Alain Barriault, president of the Nunavut Housing Corporation.

A concerned citizen notified the appropriate parties about the spill at unit 4002 Road to Nowhere at 3:30 p.m. on May 8, said Ian Rumbolt, GN Department of Environment's manager of pollution control. He was on site by 4 p.m. Nunatta Environmental Services Inc., which was contracted to do the clean-up, was already on site as was Narwhal Plumbing and Heating, the company that replaces fuel tanks. The Iqaluit Housing Authority manages the property for the housing corporation, which owns the building.

Workers dug trenches and a raised barrier was created to separate the area, said Rumbolt. Booms were laid to contain the spill. Rumbolt said contaminated soil and snow were removed from the area.

The site was cleared and Barriault said the majority of the spill was cleaned up by May 12. On May 13, new tanks were being installed and there was still oil residue on the ground.

The oil leaked from the bottom of the tank into a metal base called a berm. Barriault said the base is designed to hold the same volume of oil as the tank.

"It appeared to be leaking for a while and it continued leaking and then the berm overflowed," he said.

Barriault said is not clear how much fuel was spilled. Uqsuq Corporation officials, who deliver the fuel, said the last delivery to the unit was on April 30. The storage capacity of the tank when full is 4,500 litres. The tank was eight years old.

Testing was done on the soil adjacent to nearby buildings and all the results came back clean, said Barriault.

Rumbolt said he and the environmental protection officer walked to the main road with the culvert on the side where the lake is to check for any run-off into the body of water.

"We couldn't see any sheen on the water or any type of fuel there," he said.

The leaky tank has been removed from the site and will be inspected to determine the exact cause of the leak.

Barriault said the corporation will install either one tank or multiple tanks on site depending on what is available in the storage facility in Iqaluit. New tanks will be coming up on sealift.

The cost for the clean-up is unknown but Barriault said he does not expect it to be "overly large."