On June 27, an oil spill occurred at Canadian Natural Resources Limited’s (CNRL) Primrose operations 75km east of Lac la Biche. The spill happened on the Cold Lake Air Weapons Range (CLAWR). DeSmog.ca reported a release of bitumen emulsion, which is a mixture of heavy tar sands crude and water from oil production.
According to a press release from the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) neither the company nor the government are certain of the volume of emulsion spilled.
It is hard to gain access to the site, and the Huffington Post reports that even the Beaver Lake Cree have been denied access to the land which is located on their traditional territory. Sources that did gain access to the site said that the damage of the spill is much worse than the company, government or media are reporting.
The damage was described as “black puddles” or “black spots” coming up in different areas.
An employee on site confirmed that the tar sands emulsion seeping from the ground is not a pipeline spill. It is troubling that, industry and government do not know what the spill is. What is known is that there is a lot of oil and they do not know how to stop it.
© 2013, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.
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