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Fuel Odours Observed At Shade’s Mill Reservoir Outlet – Ministry Of Environment Update
The Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks has directly provided the following update:
- Vacuum trucks remain at key bridge access locations along Mill Creek (primarily at Concession 2) to skim visibly impacted surface water where possible. The consultant’s crews also continue to monitor containment, collect additional surface water samples (minimum of three (3) sampling events per week) and make observations for any new impacted areas or wildlife.
- The Ministry is currently reviewing the draft remedial action plan to ensure it appropriately addresses environmental impacts.
- Once finalized, the remedial action plan will likely be used as the basis for a provincial officer’s order to formalize clean-up expectations and timelines moving forward.
- As of January 23, 2019, all roadside remedial work at the scene of the accident has been temporarily suspended due to highway safety concerns posed by current weather conditions. This work will resume once weather conditions permit.
- At approximately 2:30 PM on January 23, 2019, the consultant notified the Ministry that fuel odours were observed at the Shade’s Mill reservoir outlet.
- Odour is the primary indicator of jet fuel impact at this time. Visible sheen may not always be present due to the solubility of certain hydrocarbon fractions as well as emulsified fuel that may be deeper in the water column.
- Although no sheen or free product was reported as visually observed, an additional boom has been deployed at the reservoir outlet to increase containment efficiency.
Based on this new information, Spills Action Centre, at the request of Guelph District Office, is in the process of providing updated notifications to downstream water users out of an abundance of caution.
