SASKATOON — Premier Brad Wall says two recent oil spills in Saskatchewan are unfortunate, but the response by the company involved has been promising.
Wall was responding to a 5,000-litre crude oil spill earlier this week at a Tundra Energy terminal 270 kilometres southeast of Regina.
The leak came just weeks after 200,000 litres of oil seeped onto low-lying agricultural land belonging to the Ocean Man First Nation.
Wall said Calgary-based Tundra has cleaned up almost all of the first spill. There is no evidence the 50-year old line was ever inspected, but Wall said the second release was from a pipeline that was looked at in July. He added the government needs to ensure regulations are rigorous.
“If we’re going to be advocating for pipelines across the country or into the U.S., then I think we need to ensure we have the right regulatory regime in place,” he said Friday.
The province is already exploring tighter regulations in Saskatchewan after a Husky Energy (TSX:HSE) line spilled 220,000 litres of oil near the North Saskatchewan River last July.
The spill forced the cities of North Battleford, Prince Albert and Melfort to shut off their water intakes from the river and find other water sources for almost two months. Husky said it was able to recover about 210,000 litres before it wrapped up cleanup efforts in the fall.