Shipping company cleans up fuel spill outside Nunavik community

Transport Desgagnés M/T Sarah anchored outside Salluit Oct. 8. The community’s mayor says he’s been told the amount of fuel spilled could be as much as 10,000 litres. (PHOTO BY PAULUSIE SAVIADJUK)

(Updated 3:00 p.m., Oct. 8)

The amount of fuel spilled Oct. 7 from a tanker stationed at Salluit could be as much as 10,000 litres, the mayor of the Nunavik community says.

That’s the latest estimate Paulusie Saviadjuk said he’s received from officials who are working to clean up the spill in the Hudson Strait community.

But the company’s president, Serge Le Guellec said it was an estimated 2,000 to 3,000 litres of fuel that spilled Oct. 7 while the company’s vessel, the M/T Sarah, was delivering fuel.

It was the vessel’s final delivery of the season, and crews were in their final hour of offloading the fuel when winds picked up and crews has to quickly halt operations.

“The crews used emergency measures to stop and cap the line,” Le Guellec said.

“We think, with the high winds, that the line might have collided with the props of the vessel, endangering the line. We’re still not sure, but we think that’s what happened.”

Saviadjuk said he only noticed the problem when another resident went down to the beach to see her canoe and noticed a strong smell of diesel.

“We went down as soon as we heard,” Saviadjuk said. “The odour was so strong, even my eyes were burning.

“A lot of people were complaining about the smell.”

The line used to offload fuel from the M/T Sarah to the shoreline runs for about 2,400 feet, in six sections, used to move the 200,000 litres of jet fuel and 1.8 million litres of diesel fuel destined for the community, Le Guellec said.

Once crews capped the line, there was only about 4,000 litres of diesel left on board the ship, he said.

Through the afternoon and early evening of Oct. 7, Environment Canada forecast snow and temperatures of 0 C in Salluit.

The weather was too poor Oct. 7 to investigate the extent of the spill, Le Guellec said.

When the weather improved early Oct. 8, Desgagnés employees reported no trace of diesel along Salluit’s shoreline, Le Guellec said, although he noted there could be a lag time for the fuel to wash up on the shore.

“It’s our responsibility to recover the spill, and we take that very seriously,” said Le Guellec, who was travelling to the Nunavik community Oct. 9.

Desgagnés has alerted Quebec’s environment department and the Canadian Coast Guard, which deployed the CCGS Terry Fox to assist in spill recovery efforts.

The Coast Guard said the Terry Fox has arrived in the area at about 8:30 a.m. Oct. 8 to help out with the response to the spill and that so far, they have found no fuel washed up onshore.

A Transport Canada aircraft was schedule to fly over the area Oct. 8, the Coast Guard said.

Desgagnés will use booms, skimmers and absorbent materials to remove the fuel from around the community, which is located in a fiord off Hudson Strait.

The diesel isn’t visible on the beach or along the shoreline, Saviadjuk said, although he fears that the actual amount of fuel spilled may be much greater than original estimates.

“We’re all concerned,” he said. “We’ve asked people not to go near the area.”