Size of Oil Spill in Canada Grows

Oil spill in Canada's Alberta 'biggest in 35 years'

A major oil pipeline leak in Alberta, Canada, is the largest the region has seen in 35 years, officials say.

Around 28,000 barrels of oil have spilled from a rupture in the Plains Midstream Canada Rainbow pipeline in northern Alberta.

Most of the oil has been contained near the spill, but some has seeped into wetlands near the site, regulators say.

The cause of the breach is under investigation, and its operator said it expected to complete repairs this week.

The Rainbow pipeline, owned by Plains All American, carried about 187,000 barrels of oil a day in 2010 from Zama in north-west Alberta some 480 miles (770km) south to Edmonton.

The leak occurred about 60 miles north-east of Peace River.

This is the second major spill from the Rainbow pipeline, which was built in 1965 and has the capacity to carry 220,000 barrels a day.

The leak was discovered by pipeline employees on 29 April. Initial estimates put the spill at a few hundred barrels.

CALGARY—Alberta regulators Wednesday greatly increased their size estimate of an oil spill last week in the western Canadian province, boosting it to 28,000 barrels and making it the largest spill in the province in 36 years.

The Friday spill on the Rainbow pipeline system, owned by a unit of Plains All American Pipeline LP, was characterized by regulators as "significant" at the time, but they initially estimated the size in the hundreds of barrels.

It was the second spill in Alberta in a matter of days and comes at a time of significantly heightened scrutiny of pipeline safety across North America. A 20,000-barrel spill last year in Michigan caused a political firestorm in Washington, D.C. More recently, American environmentalists have raised pipeline-safety concerns as part of their opposition to increased oil-sands imports from Canada. On Tuesday, BP PLC agreed to pay a $25 million fine over two Alaskan spills in 2006 that dumped just over 5,000 barrels of oil onto the Arctic tundra.

The 600-mile Rainbow pipeline runs from northern Alberta to Edmonton, the province's capital, where refineries process the oil for markets in Canada and the U.S. The pipeline transports up to 220,000 barrels of oil a day. The cause of the leak is still being investigated.

Officials said the oil spill has been contained along the pipeline's right-of-way and in nearby pools of stagnant water. There has been no migration of oil from the contained area, Alberta's Energy Resources Conservation Board said in a release Wednesday.

In a statement Friday night, Houston-based Plains All American's Canadian unit said its crews were working to clean up the spill. It didn't say when it expects to return the damaged section of the pipeline to service. A spokesman couldn't be reached to comment Wednesday.

The spill occurred in a fairly isolated stretch of boreal forest in northern Alberta, about four miles from the nearest homes in Little Buffalo, Alberta.

A First Nations, or aboriginals, community in Little Buffalo, along with an organizer for the environmental group Greenpeace, issued a statement Wednesday saying local officials had closed a nearby school and that some residents had reported nausea, burning eyes and headaches after the spill.

A spokesman for Alberta's environmental ministry said air quality remained well within health guidelines. "There is no health risk," he said.

The ministry said government officials were on site to ensure that steps were taken to mitigate the impact on wildlife and the surrounding area. Plains All American has hired environmental specialists to clean up the spill, the government said.

Environmentalists in Canada and the U.S. could use the Rainbow spill as fresh ammunition to oppose the construction of new pipelines bringing crude from Alberta's oil-sands developments to the U.S.

A July 2010 spill near Marshall, Mich., from Enbridge Inc.'s Lakehead system, which brings oil from Canada to the U.S., triggered a wave of criticism in the U.S. against the Calgary-based pipeline company. Some oil made its way into Michigan's Kalamazoo River. Enbridge executives were brought to testify before Congress.

The Rainbow spill is the largest spill in Alberta since 1975, when about 40,000 barrels spilled out of the Bow River Pipeline system in the southern part of the province. It is the second spill in Alberta in as many weeks.

On the previous Friday, Kinder Morgan Energy Partners reported a small spill near Edmonton from its Trans Mountain pipeline.