Murray Wood: Drought or deluge, it's Saskatchewan weather
Murray Wood notes that while we have seen years with "perfect" weather in the province, they aren't that commo...
The Saskatchewan government is taking a better look at pipelines that are crossing water supplies.
There are 35 major crossings in the province at waterways providing drinking water sources. Most of those are pipes run under the riverbed.
“The inspectors will be looking to ensure there has been no ground disturbance, there hasn’t been any slumping, particularly in light of the last number of years where we’ve had significant rainfall in the province,” Energy and Resources Minister, Dustin Duncan said. “Is there any construction that has been near that area that might have an impact on that pipe, is there visually anything that might look suspect with that pipe.”
Once the work is complete, the inspectors will look at the 90 other places in Saskatchewan that are near to or flow into water supplies, like tributaries.
Duncan maintains the government wants to give people peace of mind about what comes out of their taps.
In July, 69,000 people had their drinking water impacted when Husky Energy’s oil spilled into the North Saskatchewan River.
The majority of the cleaning is completed with 80 per cent of the oil recovered.
“Activities are planned to continue this fall at least until the end of September and potentially into October,” confirmed Wes Kotyk, with the Ministry of Environment.
A total of 148 animals have died in the spill, most of them small mammals and fish.
There is still no word on the cause of the leak, but the government remains committed to releasing the report from the investigation when it is complete.
