PRINCE ALBERT, Sask. – Washing machines that normally churn with clothes and linens at Marlin Labossiere’s laundromat have been sitting idle for nearly two weeks because of an oil spill on the North Saskatchewan River.
“Well I’m shut down completely, so it’s affected myself and my daughter who are both involved with the laundromat and also staff too,” Labossiere said Tuesday.
“I can’t give them any time of work or anything like that, so they’re suffering too.”
Labossiere’s laundromat was closed after a Husky Energy (TSX:HSE) pipeline spilled up to 250,000 litres of oil mixed with a lighter hydrocarbon called a diluent into the North Saskatchewan River near Maidstone.
Prince Albert is about 300 kilometres east of Maidstone, but the oil plume flowed downstream and the city of about 35,000 was forced to shut its water intakes.
Since then, it has been relying on stored water in reservoirs as well as from a storm retention pond to supply its treatment plant while it constructed two temporary, above-ground lines to other rivers in the region.
Prince Albert has implemented an emergency water conservation bylaw.
Businesses that rely on water, like Labossiere’s laundromat, are left dry.
Labossiere said this is usually one of his busiest times during the year because the Prince Albert Exhibition Summer Fair is scheduled to take place from Tuesday to Saturday.
“I just had a phone call from the midway and they said they’ve got five days of laundry that they have to get done and they can’t. And then I got a phone call from one of the local hotels which does not have a laundry facility for their customers,” he said.
Labossiere figures the shutdown is costing him about $1,000 a day. In the meantime, he still has to pay things like utility bills and taxes.
Larry Fladager, CEO of the Prince Albert and District Chamber of Commerce, said rural businesses were affected dramatically if they were on the city water system and businesses inside the city, such as car washes, had their water cut off.
“For those businesses, no water means no revenue, so in some cases they’ve had to lay people off and are hoping to, of course, bring them back when the situation gets resolved,” he said.
Fladager noted that Husky has said it will “make good” on costs and businesses could be reimbursed for lost revenue.
“You’ll have to wait and see how that all turns out because it all sounds good, but is it as good as it sounds?”
The Saskatchewan Water Security Agency said there is no timeline for when communities can start drawing water again from the North Saskatchewan River.
Agency spokesman Patrick Boyle said the water treatment plants aren’t equipped to deal with hydrocarbons.
“When you’re dealing with water and having hydrocarbons in it, there’s no easy solution, and from our perspective the risk is quite large with looking at the intakes, so we’re not going to rush that decision,” said Boyle.
The Saskatchewan Ministry of Environment said Tuesday that more than 1,200 water samples have been taken between the spill site and Prince Albert. Interim findings of 256 sample results were to be shared with impacted communities Tuesday and made public Wednesday.
Meanwhile, ministry spokesman Ash Olesen says about 133,000 litres of oil have been recovered. Olesen couldn’t say what the odds are of cleaning it all up.
“It, to be very frank, is low because … there could be some material that has sunk to the bottom, and that is extremely difficult to recover,” said Olesen.
— By Jennifer Graham in Regina