Nunavik community remains on alert following tanker fuel spill

This map, sent out Oct. 16, shows in red the area from which the DFO says Salluit residents should not eat shellfish. (IMAGE COURTESY OF DFO)

(Updated Oct. 16, 10:20 p.m.)

The mayor of Salluit says residents in the Nunavik community are still concerned about potential contamination a week after a commercial tanker spilled fuel near the town site.

Paulusie Saviadjuk said he’s happy with the response, led by the ship’s owner, Transport Desgagnés, but said efforts to recover the fuel were only focused around the community’s wharf.

“They didn’t go to the other side,” Saviadjuk said. “Hunters are telling me they can still smell diesel, even in the fiord.”

On Oct. 7, Desgagnés’ M/T Sarah was in its final hour of offloading 1.8 million litres of fuel to Salluit’s fuel farm when winds picked up and crews were forced to quickly cap off the 2,400-foot line.

In the process, the company said the line hit the vessel’s propeller and leaked about 3,000 litres of fuel into the water.

Desgagnés crew members and federal agencies completed the clean-up Oct. 11 and left the Hudson Strait community the same day.

They were able to recover between 2,500 and 3,000 litres of fuel, noting little evidence of residual fuel, the company’s president Serge Le Guellec said earlier this week.

The federal department of Fisheries and Oceans issued a harvesting ban following the spill, but lifted the ban in part Oct. 13.

On Oct. 16 a notice from the DFO said the “results of samples analysis indicates Salluit bay shellfish are not contaminated by fuel except for those who are in the area of the Salluit wharf.”

The DFO said it was monitoring the situation and would provide updates as required.

“They’re trying to make this [into] a small incident, but to us, as locals, we don’t consider it small,” Saviadjuk said. “It’s serious.”