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Primrose East Bitumen Spill

Ms Blakeman: Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. In January 2009 about 500 barrels of bitumen seeped from the CNRL project at the Primrose East field, north of Cold Lake. There are questions around what is happening at the site now and whether the cause of the spill has been contained and if there has been any groundwater contamination. My first question is to the Minister of Energy. Can the minister confirm that such a release occurred at the CNRL Primrose East site, and can we get a firm figure on how much bitumen was spilled into the environment?

Mr. Knight: Mr. Speaker, the truth of the matter is that I don’t think that anybody could confirm the absolute amount of leakage from any containment reservoir across the province of Alberta, so I’m afraid that at this point in time I’d not be able to answer such a question. She wouldn’t have the answer, and neither would I.

Ms Blakeman: Well, you could’ve tried harder.

To the Minister of Environment: what involvement has the ministry had in ensuring that there has been no contamination of groundwater from the leak? Is the ministry on-site with the ERCB, or is the company self-monitoring?

Mr. Renner: Well, Mr. Speaker, I’m not familiar with this specific incident. I’ll be happy to get some briefing from my officials to find out the specifics on this case. But I can talk about how we deal with such incidents in general. Yes, there is a degree of self-reporting that’s involved in these things, but there’s also an auditing provision that is part of the ministry. There is a responsibility on the part of industry to report any incidents. Once that has taken place, there’s an ongoing monitoring. There’s groundwater monitoring that would come into effect. I’m satisfied that our officials have the matter well in hand.

Ms Blakeman: Well, good. I look forward to what the minister can report back to us on that. While he’s at it, if he could also answer this. Given that kill fluid is being brought in day and night to the site, can the minister tell us if the leak has been successfully mitigated by this fluid, and if not – I’m sorry. This question should be directed to the Minister of Energy. My apologies.

Okay. Kill fluid is brought in day and night. Can the minister tell us if the leak has been mitigated by this fluid, and if not, is the cause of the leak a fracture in the formation?

The Speaker: The hon. minister.

Mr. Knight: Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I would suggest that the direction of that question was more appropriate in her first instance, so I would ask the hon. Minister of Environment to respond.

Mr. Renner: Well, Mr. Speaker, as with the first question, I’m not familiar and have not been briefed on this specific example. I’ll get the information and provide it to the member.