Cenovus Energy officials are sharing this week’s practice drill to alleviate an oil spill in the Vermilion and North Saskatchewan rivers. They say their efforts involved dealing with the effects on flora, fauna, Indigenous communities, historic sites and the water supply to the City of Lloydminster.
With the water level and river flows rising on the river following weekend rains in Alberta, the second day of the exercise was limited to land operations, state officials as they prioritized the safety of staff.
On Wednesday, they were able to have boats and booms in the water and on Thursday their simulation tackled protecting wildlife from the effects of the spill and setting up a decontamination area to clean protective gear.
Field response coordinator Kevin Miciak said, “It takes a lot of people to have an effective response, we take this very seriously.” The Cenovus emergency manager added, “We have 14 spill site supervisors who are fully trained. We have a big cache of boats, including nine jet boats and three rapid response spill trailers, a wildlife trailer and winter response as well as additional equipment.”
Officials state that the emergency drill was coordinated from the Cenovus office in Lloydminster with two field locations on the North Saskatchewan River.
