Trans Mountain had to temporarily shut down its pipeline as a precaution in response to Sunday morning's spill at its facility near Kamloops.
"An investigation confirmed a release of product from some station piping and has been contained entirely within Trans Mountain's facility,” the company said in an emailed statement to Kamloops Matters on May 27. “The product is a medium crude blend an no specific estimate of volume is available at this time."
The company reported the 100-litre spill at Kinder Morgan’s Darfield facility at 5 a.m. on Sunday. The pipeline was re-opened by 3:20 that afternoon.
Ministry of Environment spokesperson David Karn said, "It appears that one of their flow metres had a leak and the oil went to ground. That means it just went onto the ground. No waterways were affected and it was all contained within the station property. They responded with vacuum trucks on site."
Sharon Halliwell, a neighbour to the pump station, says a man from Kinder Morgan came over to her property Sunday morning around 10:30 a.m. to tell her "there had been a release."
It took a little while before the smell made its way to her home, but Halliwell said it became very strong.
"About 20 minutes later I could really smell it," she says. "It stinks, it's giving me a headache."
In the past, she says they've let her know about maintenance that's gone on at the station, but this time was different. She says the employee told her there had been a release, and when pressed more for information, he confirmed to her it was a spill.
"I've lived here 15 years," she says. "They've done a lot of letting the air out of the lines. This is the first time someone has that I'm aware there's been a spill."
She says she was told it would take 10 days for the cleanup to take place.
The incident comes just four days before Kinder Morgan is expected to announce if it'll go ahead with its $7.4-billion Trans Mountain expansion project.
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