Remember the hospital in South Carolina that left a leaky fuel pump running all weekend and everyone was happy the sticky badness was partly contained by a beaver dam? Well in Alberta the very reliable and inexplicably named RAINBOW pipeline running from Zama to Edmonton sprung a leak Thursday and about 28,000 gallons of oil bubbled into the wetlands. Authorities boasted it was partly contained by a local beaver dam, meaning that the beavers themselves were coated in toxic sludge. 4 were euthanized and 2 died outright, along with a host of ducks.
Now the natives in the near by villages are getting sick from the foul aftermath and bitter fumes. Of course every effort is being made to contain and repair the noxious spill — of INFORMATION i mean, of course, not OIL. Apparently the residents were not even alerted about the incident.
“It has been four days since classes were suspended due to the noxious odours in the air,” said Brian Alexander, principal of Little Buffalo School. “The children and staff at the school were disorientated, getting headaches and feeling sick to their stomachs. “We tried to send the children outside to get fresh air as it seemed worse in the school, but when we sent them out they were getting sick as well.”
The oil is now contained and about 100 workers are working to recover oil from sand and a nearby pond, said the Alberta Energy Resources Conservation Board. Neither the ERCB nor the owner of the pipeline, Plains Midstream Canada, has spoken directly with the band, said Chief Steve Nosky.
“The ERCB is not being accountable to our community; they did not even show up to our community meeting to inform us of the unsettling situation we are dealing with,” he said.
I guess it is easier to euthanize a beaver than it is to wash it, treat it, and return it with its family members to a cleaned pond. It’s a fairly grim outcome, but it’s still more compassionate than what happened in Greer.
You might need cheering up after that article. so here’s Lory’s picture from yesterday morning outside her front door. Enjoy.
