The emails of the government obtained through a request for the right to information suggest that Irving Oil Ltd. did not know the discrepancies in the fuel numbers until after a spill was detected in its Woodstock service station.
In an email of January 7, Mallory Gilliss, manager of sites contaminated with the Department of the Environment and the local government, colleagues updated after a “update of high level” meeting with Irving and the contractor that the company hired to administer the spill, Dillon Consulting Limited.
“The Irving Operations Group is investigating the cause of the leak. There was a crack in the remote filling elbow and are evaluating the cause of the crack. They have already identified some discrepancies in the product inventory in the week prior to the incident and will continue to investigate whether it was a software process or failure,” Gilliss wrote.
“They will look at other Irving sites to see if they have the same vulnerability.”
It is not clear what that vulnerability was, which led thousands of liters of diesel to the environment without being detected immediately, it is not clear.
Interview requests were also sent to Irving Oil Ltd. by email and telephone calls. The company did not respond to applications. In fact, Irving Oil has never responded to CBC requests regarding this diesel leakage dating from its discovery.
Approximately 180,000 liters have been recovered from a Woodstock Irving diesel leak as research on what happened continues.
In the days after the initial discovery of Diesel’s escape in mid -December 2024, several locals told CBC News that they had already reported diesel in the water supply in neighboring Tim Hortons, in some cases several weeks before measures were taken.
The amount of diesel recovered from the spill has recently increased to 180,000 liters.
The road officials got by surprise
These same documents also show a series of confused emails of a variety of organizations, including government agencies, which were in the dark about the escape and their possible impacts.
The personnel of the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure were surprised to the extent of cleaning operations. It seems efforts to capture the filtered diesel invaded on the Trans-Canada road, and the prevented traffic, without officials knowing or approve of those operations.
“Cleaning in [Beardsley] The road has spread to NBHC [New Brunswick Highway Corporation] property. We have not been notified by anyone, “wrote Kyle Wright, an Operation, Maintenance and Rehabilitation Manager of DTI, to a colleague on February 12.
An email to Wright of Craig Gallant by Atkinsréalis, previously called CNC-Lavalin Group Inc., the company that manages that road stretch under contract for the province, replied that they had no idea of the invasion operations.
“It seems that the cleaning contractor at the Irving AT [Beardsley] The road is now excavating inside the road row [right of way]. Are you aware? We have not been informed of any plan in this regard. Any information that the province has for this cleaning would be appreciated, “Gallant wrote.
Groups in the dark
After a CBC news post on the initial estimate of at least 100,000 liters of filtered diesel, several organizations began to contact the province to obtain details about the spill.
These emails were included in the request for the right to information. Some came from an environmental application officer and the climate change in Canada, as well as the Wollatoqey nation in New Brunswick. Both requested information about the escape and their possible impact on fish habitats.
The department also received calls from nearby owners concerned about their land and contaminated water.
The day after the initial CBC news report, the city of Woodstock also requested more information about the spill directly from the Minister of Environment, Gilles Lepage and Deputy Minister Charbel Awad after expressing his frustration with the lack of Irving Oil updates.
“I trust that Irving follows all the requirements of the Environment Department in its remediation work, and we understand that an environmental assessment is being carried out, but given the reports of the fuel media found in the surface water in the wetlands at a distance quite a distance, I think it is time that I better understand the possible severity of the situation,” wrote the mayor Trina Jones.
“As you can see, the media will continue to arrive at me and my advice to seek more information and, although I continue to divert their questions, as recent as yesterday, the members of our community will wait for us to have more information than the press,” Jones wrote.
The investigation continues
On May 5, the Environment Department issued a press release that indicates that an investigation was launched to the security of the service station, a direct result of the escape in Woodstock, revealed problems in almost half of the inspected locations.
“The department has completed 30 inspections around New Brunswick since he launched the year in April,” the statement said. “They were observed not to complete in 14 sites. These findings caused compliance actions by the department, including the issuance of tickets and compliance plans.”
Since then, the province has updated those numbers from 14 sites to 15 sites.
The minister responds
According to Lepage, tickets for “minor infractions” in those 15 service stations total about $ 6,000. He said the stations were selected in different regions at random and included Irving and non -breakstream stations.
He said he can’t say what led to the escape and why he was not detected immediately.
“The investigation continues, ours and also Irving’s investigation,” Lepage said. “We will combine both and find recommendations, solutions and more actions, after obtaining those reports.”
Lepage said he is not sure when they will be completed, but “hopefully within next month.” He said they will be made public.
“Everything I can make public, yes, I will make public,” Lepage said.
When asked why the Environment Department did not immediately report the public about the escape, Lepage said that its detection on December 15 was close to Christmas holidays and the priority at that time was to collect the filtered fuel and enforce the rules of the department that govern clean.
“We are answering all citizens who request an answer. Our staff is there to answer questions, consulting staff are there to answer questions and, of course, the company is also there, and also responsible for answering those questions,” said Lepage.
