UPDATED: Oil spill determined to be road sealant leaking from storm drain, flows into South Saskatchewan River
Clean up crews with the City of Saskatoon have been busy dealing with an
oil-like road sealant leaking into the Saskatchewan River.
At about 5:30
p.m. on Thursday night, crews from the Ministry of Environment and the City of
Saskatoon responded to a call after someone noticed something collecting along
the sand bar below Ravine Drive.
The substance was traced back to the
33rd street storm sewer outfall. The Saskatoon Fire Department arrived around 11
p.m. to help and worked well into this morning to contain the leak.
"(We)
determined that it was a road sealant material and immediately began to engage a
clean-up activity and containment. That's an activity that continues to go on
right now," said Brenda Wallace with the City of Saskatoon.
"We're trying
to...stop larger chunks of the product from getting into the river," said Glenn
Ledray, battallion chief with the Saskatoon fire department.
There is
still no time-line on how long this spill will take to clean up, but efforts are
going well at this point, said Wallace.
"It's not a residue. It's more
like a rubberized type material as it's coming out. So, you can clean it fairly
easily," she said.
There is still no information on how much oil wound up
in the river or where the leak started.


