It makes me feel sick’: Local First Nations survey Nexen pipeline spill damage – CTV News
Published Sunday, July 19, 2015 10:24AM EDT
As crews work to clean up a massive pipeline spill in Alberta, local First Nations have been left to survey the damage to the land where they’ve lived for generations.
Over the weekend, crews worked to vacuum up 5 million litres of oil emulsion that seeped out of a breached Nexen Energy pipeline south of Fort McMurray.
It is unclear how and when the spill began, as the company’s spill-monitoring system failed to spot the leak when it started.
It wasn’t until Wednesday that a contractor noticed the mixture of sand, oil and water escaping from the pipe. By that time, enough emulsion had spilled to fill two Olympic-sized swimming pools.
Local indigenous people say the scale of the damage is devastating.
MS5
