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Red Deer practises river chemical spill response

Updated: Fire-medics and city environmental services staff in joint training session near CPR Bridge

Fire-medics and other city staff practised their response to a chemical spill on Red Deer River Thursday morning.

Red Deer Emergency Services’ jet boat took to the water and other fire-medics and city environmental services staff positioned themselves on the riverbank to deploy an orange boom. In the event of an emergency, it would be used to capture lighter-than-water contaminants and try to limit the environmental damage to the river and the city’s water supply.

“The reason we want to be proficient in that is in the event there was a spill within the sewer water system in Red Deer they would be able to deploy the booms and contain that,” said Tim Ainscough, city environmental services manager.

“We have about 900 feet of river booms. So, if we needed to we could go all the way across the river,” said Ainscough.

About two dozen first responders and other city staff took part in the joint exercise that took place just below the CPR Bridge.

On Thursday, crews were practising how to contain a spill into the river from one of the city’s stormwater outlets.

“If something got spilled on the road network up here and drained into the stormwater outfall they could set this boom up and contain it there,” said Ainscough. “Then we would bring in the hydrovac trucks and pick up that spill.”

There is no telling what could end up in the river.

“When you look at what is travelling down the highway and all the placards (that show what chemicals are being carried) there’s lot of different things it could be.

“The river booms work good if it’s lighter than water and floats on the water. If it’s heavier than water, we have to deal with it in different ways.”

Outside experts would be called in to help in that scenario, which might involve river diversions.

Fortunately, the city has not faced a major river spill in recent memory.

However, contending with a major spill on Red Deer River is much more than a theoretical exercise.

In June 2012, up about 460,000 of light sour crude oil was released into the Red Deer River from a Plains Midstream Canada pipeline about one km north of Sundre.

An Alberta Energy Regulator investigation laid the blame on the Calgary-based company, saying it did not inspect the pipeline annually or even follow its own pipeline integrity management program.

The spill cost more than $50 million to clean up. Two years after the spill, Plains Midstream was fined $1.3 million for the Red Deer River spill and a much larger 4.5-million litre spill in northern Alberta in 2011.

Ainscough said the city has a plan in the event of that sort of disaster.

“The first protocol if there was a spill upstream of the city the water treatment plant would close the intake and protect (the water supply) until we were able to assess what was spilled and whether it would have an impact or not.”



pcowley@reddeeradvocate.com

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