It will likely take years to clean up and monitor all the environmental damage caused by a gasoline tanker truck spill at Goldstream Provincial Park, even with some initially positive test results, says the Environment Ministry.
Crews from sa国际传媒's Environment Ministry, First Nations and Columbia Fuels have been working for almost two months to gauge the level of pollution caused when a tanker truck crashed on the Malahat and spilled 40,000 litres of gasoline into the salmon-bearing Goldstream River.
Early tests indicate good news, said Graham Knox, the ministry's environmental emergencies manager.
Although the river saw "significant" fish deaths immediately after the April 16 crash, it hasn't seen many new deaths since then, he said.
The amount of tiny organisms in the river that serve as food for other life, called benthic invertebrate organisms, is also increasing and a good sign of health, Knox said.
Most sediment tests have come back below warning levels, he said. And water quality tests at seven sites have generally registered below guidelines, he said.
"We're pretty happy with the fact that we are consistently below those guidelines, which means there should be no, or very minimal, sublethal impacts to fish and other organisms in the creek," Knox said.
Columbia Fuels is on the hook for all cleanup costs, as is the owner of the crashed tanker truck. An exact amount has yet to be calculated, said Knox.
Despite the progress highlighted in ministry tests, there are complaints about the smell of gasoline in the area, and a visible sheen on parts of the river.
"You can have an odour but it may be below our aquatic guidelines," said Knox. Ministry staff are wrestling with how aggressively to clean and remove every plant, rock, tree and soil patch affected by the gas.
"We could take chainsaws and gas cans or big equipment and start cutting this stuff out and removing that, but what might end up being the result of that is during the first winter storm, now that we've removed the structural integrity of the stream bank, it will blow out the whole bottom of the Goldstream River," he said.
"This is a balancing act we're trying to achieve.
Spills are a lose-lose situation. The damage has been done, and what we don't want to do is cause more damage by being so aggressive and so focused on every single smell and piece of sheen."
It could be three to five years before the real impact is known when the coho salmon fry affected by the spill return to the river to spawn.
Columbia Fuels is finalizing terms of reference with the Environment Ministry for an environmental impact assessment. It's expected the company will monitor fish health and returns for at least three to five years, said Knox.
Crews have removed contaminated soil on both sides of the Malahat highway. The next step is more drilling and test wells to narrow in on remaining gasoline sources, Knox said.
The concern is that because the area has a fractured bedrock base, gasoline could seep into a hardto-detect crack and then later leach into the river, Knox said.
It could be as much as a year before government considers issuing a certificate of compliance to Columbia Fuels for its cleanup efforts, said Knox.
The company will also have to pay a natural resource damage fee to help restore the area's recreational and wildlife features. Though the amount could be quite significant, it has yet to be calculated, said Knox.
Columbia Fuels said Friday it continues to co-operate with the Environment Ministry.
