The city of Elliot Lake could be on the hook for a $181,487 oil spill clean up cost.
The incident appears unrelated to the oil spill clean up on Horne Lake early last summer. That story here.
The cost was identified in a summary list of wastewater maintenance infrastructure, “Oil contamination clean up at the No Frills and Porridge Lift Stations for a total cost of $181,487.”
A lengthy paragraph in the 8-page staff report provided detail. In summary it said, the spill was detected in the two sanitary lift stations on March 13, 2024. Authorities were notified. A third party was retained for the clean up. 75,000 litres of product was stored in frac tanks (large steel containers). The clean up was completed on March 22.
The matter came to last evening's council meeting in the report forwarded to council from the Public Services Committee meeting last week.
Public Services committee meeting, February 19
At the February 19 Public Services meeting, committee chair, Couns. Luc Morrissette asked, “And the oil spill at the No Frills [lift] station, is there a way to find out where it came from to have that much oil?”
Responding to the question, Assistant Director of Public Works Bart Doyle, said, “We have an idea of where it came from. We're in the process of...” as Interim CAO Rob deBortoli interjected.
deBortoli: “That particular question would involve revealing the client’s list of, er, privilege. So, suffice it to say, we’re trying to recoup the money we spent on that.”
Morrissette: “Okay, that was my follow-up question. Any other questions or comments?”
The committee members had no other questions.
Morrissette: “Well, there's none. Let's accept this report and send it to council."
Council meeting, February 24
At yesterday evening’s council meeting, Couns. Helen Lefebvre asked staff, “Without going into too many details as to what caused the contamination at the No Frills and Porridge lift station, is there anything - looking at the cost of the cleanup - is there anything we can do to prevent something like that from happening in the future?”
Lefebvre is not a member of the public services committee and was not present at last week's committee meeting.
Gesturing to Mayor Andrew Wannan that he wished to take the question, deBortoli responded, “That was an accidental spill into the system, so it would be, again, can't get into too many details here because of the nature of the incident.”
He did not elaborate on “the nature of the incident.” Instead, deBortoli gave an overview of precautions for any facilities “that do have these types of liquids on site to take precautions in order to prevent contamination of the collection system.”
Mayor Andrew Wannan opened the floor for further questions. There were none.
ElliotLakeToday reached out the Interim CAO last night, asking what has been done to ensure the cost will be recovered if still incomplete when the city hires a permanent CAO. We have not received a response by the time of publication.