By David Weir Black Press
10:41:43AM, Jul 25 2007
Burnaby – The stench of crude oil hung heavy over a North Burnaby neighbourhood after a backhoe hit an underground pipeline Tuesday, sending oil shooting up to 15 metres in the air, and a river of the black gold flowing downhill toward Burrard Inlet.
Up to 100 homes in the area where Inlet Drive turns into the Barnet Highway were evacuated as fire fighters tried to stem the flow of oil into the inlet.
Meanwhile, on the water, crews from Burrard Clean were rushing to get containment booms set up to control the growing oil slick. Within three hours of the rupture, oil was visible on the shoreline at the eastern edge of Barnet Marine Park, about 1.5 kilometres from where the crude likely entered the water.
And although it's was not known at press time how much oil escaped the ruptured pipeline, there are many worried about the impact the accident will have on the environment.
"It is a very tragic set of circumstances because it will have some impact on the environment, but we're glad we were able to move so quickly to bring it under control," Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan said.
The accident happened around 12:35 p.m. Tuesday as a crew from Cusano Contracting Inc. was doing roadwork for the City of Burnaby. A backhoe was digging near the intersection of Inlet and Ridge drives when it struck a pipeline that was pumping crude from the TransMountain Pipeline terminus on Burrard Inlet to a tank farm on Burnaby Mountain.
The rupture sent crude shooting up to 15 metres in the air, covering the backhoe, a nearby car and the roadway. The oil was also shooting over the fence into the neighbouring residential area. There were reports of at least one home on Belcarra Drive being covered in crude, and the cul-de-sac was turned into an oily mess.
"I smelled the smell of gas or oil in my home and the next thing I knew I heard a frantic knock on the door of my upstairs neighbour and it was a police officer telling us we had to be evacuated from our street immediately," said Natalie Marson, who lives on Belcarra.
"It's pretty a black slick at the end of my street," she said when asked to describe the scene. "Belcarra is on a cul-de-sac and the trees and street are black with oil. It's just not a very good thing."
Emergency officials initially ordered the evacuation of roughly 30 homes on Belcarra, Sierra and Malibu drives, but the order was later expanded to cover up 100 homes in the area because of health concerns about the fumes.
The evacuees were taken to Confederation Park Seniors Centre while the city lined up temporary lodging. It could be a couple of days before they are allowed to return home.
Corrigan was at a loss to explain why the accident happened. Kinder Morgan, which operates the pipeline, had provided the city and the road crew a map showing where the pipeline was supposed to be.
"The information that they had was that there wasn't going to be a pipeline affected, and apparently there was in fact a pipeline there – they clipped it and that was what caused the oil geyser," Corrigan said..
"Obviously we're going to have a long, hard look at the procedures and protocols that were followed here to make sure something like this doesn't happen again."