A First Nations community in northern Alberta has expressed concern about the damage caused by the Nexen pipeline leak earlier this week.
“I don’t know when they are going to realize that these things do happen and they have been happening for years now,” Robert Cree told CTV News.
In a Facebook post the Fort McMurray #468 First Nation wrote they were “extremely concerned about the magnitude of the pipeline spill.”
According to the post the Nexen facility where it happened is within a 10-kilometre radius of one of their communities.
Leaders of the community were given a site visit on Friday.
“There are pipelines all around here. I am worried about more spills like this,” Councillor Byron Bates said.
“We are for responsible drilling and oil extraction. What we care about is if the land is still going to be useable for our purposes in 50 years when all the oil companies are gone.”
Resident Alden Cree, who is an avid hunter, said he is worried that the wildlife will get sick.
“Haven't even worked up myself to a point where want to see what look like.”
Nexen said about 5 million litres of emulsion – a mixture of bitumen, water produced by the extraction process and sand – leaked to an area about 16,000 square metres in size near the company’s Long Lake Project.
The project is about 35 kilometres southwest of Fort McMurray.
A detection system was in place but there was no warning about the spill. It was spotted on Wednesday by a worker.
The spill had been contained by Thursday.
The Alberta Energy Regulator have been investigating.
With files from Josh Skurnik
