Resolute Bay spill now contained, GN hopes

The RCMP continues to investigate how the valves on tank 104 were discovered to have been left open the morning of Oct. 28. (PHOTO COURTESY OF RON ELLIOTT)

Snow and increasing darkness continue to hamper efforts to investigate a fuel spill at Resolute Bay’s tank farm.

And that’s made it difficult for the Government of Nunavut to determine whether there are any threats to the surrounding environment from the Oct. 27 spill.

Crews from the Community and Government Services department’s petroleum products division have yet to determine how to clean up an estimated 86,000 litres of fuel, now believed to be contained with rubber berms.

“There are still some unknowns,” said Rob Eno, Nunavut’s director of environmental protection division, who visited Resolute Bay to see the site of the spill last week. “Not being able to see the bare ground is an issue and the conditions are deteriorating.”

That’s because Resolute Bay is covered in snow and under a continuous twilight that will soon turn into 24-hour darkness.

“Some — or all — of the gasoline appears to be [contained] in the spill basin,” Eno said. “But we don’t know, we’re trying to calculate how much gasoline is sitting in the berm.”

If the 86,000 litres leaked — the new amount estimated by the community’s fuel contractor based on monthly monitoring and sales — matches the amount in the berm area, then that’s good news, Eno said.

That’s because berms like the one used are designed to withstand Arctic winters and even the spring run-off, he said, should a clean-up take that long.

But if gasoline has leaked out of the berm, that could pose a threat to local wildlife as well as to the bay, which, according to Eno, lies about 300 yards away from the spill site.

“Our major concern is gasoline getting into the ocean,” he said. “Like many petroleum products, gasoline is toxic.”

But so far, samples Eno took around the site show no evidence of that.

“We’re doing everything we possibly can to deal with this situation,” he added.

The Department of Community and Government Services has hired two engineers from the firm Stantec, who were expected to arrive in Resolute Bay Nov. 7.

They’ll investigate the spill site and determine how and if a clean-up of the fuel is possible in the current conditions.

The RCMP continues to investigate the circumstances around the spill. The valves on tank 104 were discovered to have been left open the morning of Oct. 28.