Private property responsible for ‘significant’ oil spill near Cable Bay
Published 5:30 am Thursday, January 8, 2026
The City of Nanaimo and B.C.’s Ministry of Environment and Parks are dealing with an oil spill near Cable Bay.
The spill, described as an oil substance, possibly diesel, may have occurred as early as Friday, Jan. 2, and once discovered, was traced back to a private property on the east side of the Duke Point Industrial Park.
“We traced it back up to a private property, an industrial site, and we just got the ministry of environment involved, so they’re taking the lead on the response,” said Bill Sims, City of Nanaimo general manager of engineering and public works.
He said the city is assisting the environment ministry with the spill, which flowed into Cable Bay near the industrial park from a storm drainage outflow pipe. The spill did not originate on city property, but has impacted city infrastructure.
“The infrastructure’s been contaminated, I would say with – we believe it’s oil; it sure looks like oil,” Sims said. “We’re just sort of supporting [the environment ministry investigation and cleanup] and we would expect, as part of the cleanup, that our infrastructure would be restored as well.”
Sims credited Seaspan, whose property is located near the spill, with immediately taking action when it was discovered.
“Seaspan saw evidence of this spill and reacted right away without waiting for somebody to tell them,” he said. “But they’re not the business. It’s not their spill, but they reacted and deployed some [containment] booms and absorbent pads and… they probably really helped mitigate any damage, I think.”
He said the city didn’t become aware of the spill until Monday evening, Jan. 5, and city workers didn’t see much evidence of the spill due to a king high tide, but when the tide receded and city workers returned to investigate, it was obvious there was oil in the water and on the foreshore.
The city is not identifying the private company the spill was traced back to, and the investigation into the spill is with the ministry of environment. He said the Snuneymuxw First Nation is also participating in an observation role.
Sims did not have estimates for the quantity or extent of the spill other than to say it was “significant.”
Seaspan confirmed it assisted with the response by providing a 300-metre containment boom to help the ministry of environment contain the spill.
“Seaspan was asked to assist with a recent oil spill discharge from a storm sewer near the Seaspan Ferries Duke Point terminal,” Seaspan said in an email.
“The spill did not originate from the Seaspan terminal or any Seaspan vessels, but at the request of the provincial ministry of environment, we deployed a containment boom from our terminal to help manage the outflow from the pipe. We are grateful we were able to readily assist in this incident.”
The B.C. Ministry of Environment and Parks said, in a written statement that the province was notified of an oil sheen Monday, Jan. 5, between Duke Point and Mudge Island south of Nanaimo. The National Aerial Surveillance Program under Transport Canada did an overflight the same day and estimated between 350 litres and 1,600 litres of oil sheen was on the water.
An Environmental Emergency Response Officer was on site Tuesday, Jan. 6. The spill source was identified at a commercial environmental waste operation and the material was entering a City of Nanaimo culvert that outflows to the marine environment. That outflow has been boomed, clean up is underway, no additional material has been observed outside of containment and the ministry will continue to monitor the cleanup, the statement noted.