Cleanup and investigation are underway on an oilfield accident that officials thought was impossible.
Late Friday afternoon, Norm Waters was coming home from work in Innisfail when he saw a plume of fluids spewing from the pump jack on a oilwell near his farm, about 800 metres southwest of the point where the Red Deer River flows into Gleniffer Lake.
Just over the hill from the well, operated by Calgary-based Wild Stream Exploration, a crew from Canyon Well Services had been conducting a hydraulic frac on a different oilwell, on behalf of Midway Energy.
It appears early in the investigation that fluid from the Midway Energy frac entered the Wild Stream well bore and created pressure in the well, said Darin Barter.
Fluid recovered from the scene contained a mixture of nitrogen, fracking oil and sand, said Barter.
ERCB and company officials are trying to determine if and how fluid from one well bore was able to enter another.
The farmer whose land was affected by the spill was away from home at the time.