Baker Lake fuel spill caused by driver who fell asleep while filling fuel truck
Incident occurred in April, led to increased hydrocarbon testing of hamlet’s drinking water
This map shows the location of an approximate 96-litre heating fuel spill in Baker Lake in relation to the hamlet’s municipal water intake. The incident occurred April 4. (Graphic courtesy of the Department of Health)
An April heating fuel spill in Baker Lake was caused by an Arctic Fuel Services driver who fell asleep while filling a fuel truck.
The cause is outlined in an April 11 email to Health Minister John Main from Dr. Ekua Agyemang, the territory’s acting chief public health officer, obtained by Nunatsiaq News through access to information legislation.
“The fuel truck driver began filling the fuel truck and fell asleep after starting the pump,” Agyemang wrote to Main.
“Another person saw the spilling fuel coming out of the truck and woke him up. Unknown how long fuel was spilling. Fuel was also coming out of the top of the fuel truck.”
The spill occurred April 4 and the Government of Nunavut was notified April 9. It was officially reported to be 96 litres in volume.
While the spill was cleaned up immediately, Agyemang said in her email that officials wouldn’t know until spring melt whether they got everything.
There was some concern at the time that the spill could contaminate the community’s drinking water source. Baker Lake’s tank farm is downstream from the hamlet’s water intake.
“From prior spills, we have observed fuel spills will travel upstream when there is ice on the lake,” Agyemang said in her email to Main.
She said the territorial government put up booms between the ice and shore to prevent any fuel from reaching the intake for the community’s water treatment plant.
“It has been observed that the booms had collected hydrocarbons,” she said in the email.
The GN announced at the time that it was increasing its water testing for hydrocarbons, organic compounds found in crude oil, in response to the spill.
There have been no public health advisories to indicate the detection of hydrocarbons in the water, but Nunatsiaq News has contacted the Department of Health for more information regarding the testing. As of Wednesday afternoon there was no response.
Cleanup was handled by Arctic Fuel Services under the supervision of the GN’s petroleum products division, said Greg Belanger, spokesperson for Transportation and Infrastructure Nunavut.
“[The] contaminated material was scraped and collected into Quatrex spill bags and drums, which were then transported to a facility for safe handling,” he said in an email.
“[Petroleum products division] continues to monitor the site and will support any further direction from the Department of Environment.”
Belanger referred Nunatsiaq News to Arctic Fuel Services for comment on cost.
Nunatsiaq News called and emailed Rod Rumboldt, general manager of Arctic Fuel Services, to ask for comment on the incident including cleanup costs, whether the driver who fell asleep in his truck was still working for the company, and any policy changes put in place after the incident.
Nunatsiaq News did not receive a response.
Belanger said Transportation and Infrastructure Nunavut is not aware of any charges stemming from the incident, and referred Nunatsiaq News to the Department of Environment for more information.
The Department of Environment did not respond to an interview request from Nunatsiaq News.
Given that the driver was sound asleep when this “little incident” happened, I would strongly doubt the accuracy of the “96 litres” quantity that was officially reported. It just happens to conveniently be less than the 100-litre threshold for formal action.
He ate too much nipku l
driver had a se!zure. driver did not fall asleep.
A driver who has seizures should not have a license.
Do they just wake up from a seizure?
“Another person saw the spilling fuel coming out of the truck and woke him up. Unknown how long fuel was spilling. Fuel was also coming out of the top of the fuel truck.”
for all communities, this won’t be the first or last on fuel spills this could have been prevented if Driver is better trained and prepared for an emergency, and for location of filling the fuel trucks should have a berm of which they can drive down to so as to prevent any fuel draining down to the lake or around residential areas
This type of crap is happening too often, perhaps from now on there ought to be two when there refill whether or not a spill has happened in that community. Also I’m surprised employees at the tank farms don’t have masks or goggles for their own protection.
15 years ago these were good contracts but now with PPD in shambles, the tank farms all getting older year to year, Legal green stuff that makes the workforce feel they can smoke during work hours or breaks, these contracts are a liability nightmare, I bet the Coop’s are glad they stopped doing them and should be planning to drop all contracts, force the Nu Govt to fix the problems and make those jobs Gov’t paid. its a hard job that underpays and i’m sure leads to long term health problems from not wearing proper ppe.
Alcohol is legal yet you cannot show up to work drunk, its the same thing as weed, and long before weed was legal, people were smoking the green stuff on their coffee breaks
I once saw a fuel truck driver drive away with the resupply hose still attached to the truck, he had to step over the hose get in his truck and drove away, hose snapped off and bent the main fill pipe im sure that was cheap to fix.
Another time, the Gov’t PPd worker during resupply forget to lock out the valves and the gas guy started playing with valves to figure out why the diesel pump wouldn’t work, tanks started rattling, we thought the whole town was going to blow, sped up the offloading, but was crazy dangerous. I also witnessed a truck park behind the fuel truck at gas bar when the fuel truck was refilling, truck overfilled because they have no gauges or stop sensors, driver has to watch from the top but they tend to time it off…..fuel flew over the back and into the open window of the pickup truck, no joke this happened, there’s tons more but im writing a book.
Driver had a seizure. Did not fall asleep on the job.
Inuuukpat atikagajamijuuq akutii
Sleeping on the jod isn’t a training or PPE problem. It’s a pay attention to what you are doing problem. No point in searching for difficult solutions. The guy was sleeping on the job while loading fuel. THATS THE PROBLEM. LORD SPARE US FROM THIS BS. What will happen to correct his behavior. NOTHING. Because it’s a government problem. Not the fact that the guy doesn’t give a crap about what he is doing g.
I highly doubt he fell asleep. Medical problems seems more plausible
Idk I’m $1000+ ticket away
Imagine if this happened at a mine site and got out to the public, the outrage that would come from the communities
Exactly but because its a local nothing is said.
Krusty, same old Racist attitudes, go away
Sure, but there’s truth to it Sam.
Question, and I am surprised no one has asked yet, Why do
the water trucks ,the sewage trucks, the garbage trucks all have two workers on them, but a fuel truck has only one.?