A strong smell kept Marlene Dillabaugh awake in her farm home through the early morning hours of Feb. 2.
Nearby, the hired hand and his family had phoned the natural gas company thinking there was a gas leak in their house. Fifty metres away, black gold stained the snow as it seeped from the ground.
The Mid-Saskatchewan Pipe Line was leaking. Dillabaugh, her husband Bill and the hired man’s family found themselves walking away from the farm at six a.m. Fearing that even starting vehicles might cause an explosion, the sleepy group met neighbors waiting for them down the road.
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“We didn’t know what exactly to do. But getting out of there safely was the first thing. And we did,” she said.
The oil spill, while not creating any immediate danger, caused the two families to seek fresher air 40 km away at a Kindersley, Sask., hotel.
“It may not be toxic but the smell is still so strong that if the wind is from the north you can’t even stand to be there. People in town are even complaining of smell …. The company is still cleaning it up,” she said in an interview this week.
Bill Dillabaugh has had to remain at the farm site with the couple’s 250 head of calving cows.
“The cattle mill around a lot but so far they haven’t been aborting calves or anything. We were a little worried but so far so good,” she said.
The point of the pipeline rupture, located 1.5 km northeast of Coleville, Sask., had been cited as one of three potential trouble spots in the line last year. A consultant’s review of the line for the owner, Koch, of Calgary, suggested there wasn’t a problem and the line was in good condition, so no further action was taken. The company is now inspecting the other two suspected faults in the area, said a Saskatchewan Environment spokesperson.
Covering two acres, the spill of 575 cubic metres of heavy oil, bound for the Interprovincial Pipeline feeding eastern Canada and northwestern United States, is not large by industry standards, “but it is darned inconvenient,” said Dillabaugh.
The families say they will remain guests of the oil company, living in the hotel until the smell improves and the site is cleaned up.
