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The Red Deer River Oil Spill — Update #1

Posted on: Saturday, June 9, 2012
Posted at: 4:05 PM

This is Update #1 of the Red Deer River Oil Spill…

Tracey McCrimmon, executive director of the Sundre Petroleum Operators Group, a community group that works with the industry, said people phoned in reports Thursday night of smelling rotten eggs. [ Article ]
On June 7th, 2012, a failure occurred along Plains Midstream Canada’s Rangeland Pipeline and leaked into Jackson Creek, a tributary of the Red Deer River near Sundre, Alberta. [ Article ]
An estimated 1,000 to 3,000 barrels of oil leaked into Jackson Creek — a part of the Red Deer River system. [ Video ]
The oil leak is approximately 75 kilometres upstream from Red Deer, Alberta — the third largest city in the province of Alberta. [ Article ]
At least 475,000 litres of crude oil are now in the Alberta river system. [ Article ]
Containment booms have been set up at Gleniffer Lake by Dickson Dam to sop up crude oil flowing in the swollen Red Deer River. [ Article ]
Alberta Environment says, “Water intakes have been shut at all facilities downstream and we are encouraging people to shut-in their water and not draw from the river at this time.” [ Article ]
Plains Midstream Canada is now trucking in fresh water for people living in the area. [ Article ]
Premier Alison Redford says, “It is unfortunate when these events happen. We are fortunate in this province that they don’t happen very often, and we can have some confidence that when they do happen, we have plans in place to deal with them.” [ Article ]

FYI:

The Rangeland Pipeline System is made up of approximately 1285 kilometres of gathering and trunk pipelines. [ Link ]
The majority of the Rangeland Pipeline System is approximately 50 years old. [ Link ]
According to Google Maps, Jackson Creek is approximately 50 km from the Gleniffer Reservoir — where the booms have been set up to contain the oil spill. That means, the oil spill has travelled 50 km along the Red Deer River. [ Map ]

Required Reading:

2012-06-09 » somecanuckchick