Alberta pipeline spill: Rainbow Pipeline spill near Peace River

A broken pipeline in northern Alberta has spilled nearly 30,000 barrels of oil into surrounding soil and water, in what regulators are calling the province's biggest spill in decades.

"On pipelines that we regulate there really only have been a couple of spills in the last 35 years that are this big," says Energy Resources Conservation spokesperson Davis Sheremata.

The break in the Rainbow pipeline (owned and operated by Plains All American Pipeline occurred about 100 kilometres northeast of Peace River.

28,000 barrels of crude oil have already escaped, making the spill bigger than the one that fouled a Michigan river system in 2010.

The leak was discovered on April 29, but it wasn't until days later that ERCB officials were able to assess the scale of the spill.

"We realized that this was a major, major spill involving a significant amount of product," Sheremata says.

Residents near the spill say they fear the long-term impacts of the leak.

"You'll never clean that site up," says Carmen Langer, who lives in Three Creeks - about 45 kilometres from the site. "That oil is there for eternity because you cannot clean it up ... it's very alarming."

Langer was able to get an aerial view of the spill last Sunday. "It's a massive amount of oil. I've worked in the industry for over 30 years, and it's the biggest I've ever seen."

"Very concerned and gravely concerned in terms of health and the safety of our first nations people," says Chief Steve Noskey of the Lubicon Lake First Nation.

The spill is the largest since 1993 when a BP pipeline spilled 19,000 barrels of crude, but smaller than a 41,000 barrel spill in 1975.

Classes at Little Buffalo School - in nearby Cadotte Lake - have been suspended since the leak. "The children and staff at the school were disoriented, getting headaches and feeling sick to their stomachs," says principal Brian Alexander.

The ERCB is monitoring the air and says there is no threat to public safety as a result of the leak.

"The information that I'm getting is it's contained by a beaver dam, and what they neglected to tell the general public is that there is wildlife being effected in terms of beaver being covered in oil and ducks," Noskey says. "And reports i'm getting is that some of these wildlife have to be put down."

An Alberta Environment spokesperson confirms that six beavers and 10 ducks have died. Some were euthanized because they were covered in crude, others were found dead.

Some say this latest incident - the second pipeline spill in Alberta in just a week - should be sounding an alarm.

"If this 45-year-old pipeline were to break elsewhere along its route there would be more safety and health hazards," says Melina Laboucan-Massimo, Greenpeace campaigner and member of the Lubicon Cree First Nation. "Communities across Alberta and BC are demanding an end to this type of risky development, and yet the government refuses to listen."

Langer agrees, and says the infrastructure and monitoring systems can't handle the demands of the Peace River oil industry. "This is happening because we have Premier Stelmach, the Environment Minister and the Energy Minister," Langer says. "They don't operate with a conscience, they operate with a calculator."

No one lives within 7 kilometres of the site, which has been fenced off as crews work to repair the break and clean up the spill.

A statement posted on the Plains All American Pipeline website says the company has so far recovered approximately seven per cent of the spilled oil.

With files from Vinesh Pratap