![\"Text](\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/a\/assets\/texttospeech.svg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Listen to this article<\/p>\n
Estimated 3 minutes<\/p>\n
The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.<\/p>\n
An Imperial Oil pipeline spilled 843,000 litres of bitumen emulsion northwest of Cold Lake, Alta., last week.<\/p>\n
In a statement to CBC News, Imperial Oil spokesperson Lisa Schmidt said teams responded immediately. The release, which occurred April 9, has been stopped and contained, and cleanup and remediation are underway.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are sorry this incident occurred,” Schmidt wrote.<\/p>\n
An Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) spokesperson confirmed the agency sent inspectors to the site of the spill \u2014 about 30 kilometres northwest of Cold Lake, a city near the Alberta-Saskatchewan border.<\/p>\n
The AER incident report says the emergency phase is over. The report and Imperial Oil say no impacts to wildlife or waterbodies have been identified so far.<\/p>\n
Although, Kevin Timoney, ecologist with Treeline Ecological Research, has studied thousands of spills and believes wildlife and waterbodies could be affected.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are always impacts and I know that, in the vast majority of cases, those impacts are not adequately reported,\u201d Timoney said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Schmidt said the cause of the spill is undetermined at this point, but it\u2019s being investigated.<\/p>\n
Cold Lake First Nations Chief Kelsey Jacko said he also sent officials to the site to assess the impact and come up with a plan to move forward. When he spoke with CBC News, he said he was still waiting to hear more details about the incident.<\/p>\n
“Spills happen every year,” Jacko said, adding that they impact the nation’s treaty rights.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHow do you build up trust when spills keep happening?\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1776315248_901_default.jpg\")
The incident report for the April 9, 2026, spill near Cold Lake. (Alberta Energy Regulator)<\/p>\n
Schmidt said people from the First Nation visited the site last week.<\/p>\n
She said Imperial Oil has agreed protocols with local Indigenous communities to notify them when incidents happen, and it is working to answer follow-up questions.<\/p>\n
But Jacko also wants the First Nation to have a seat at the energy regulator\u2019s table.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe environment\u2019s losing. Everybody\u2019s thinking about money,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOne day, oil is going to leave,\u201d he said. \u201cIs the land going to be as pristine as it once was? What is the legacy we\u2019re leaving behind?\u201d<\/p>\n
Incident report lacks info: ecologist<\/p>\n
Timoney, the ecologist, said the AER incident report is lacking information, which is common.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re left guessing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
For example, there\u2019s no information on the length of the spill, nor the environment where the spill happened, whether it was a forest, wetland or waterbody.\u00a0Timoney noted that some ecosystems are more sensitive to spills than others.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s also little breakdown on what was in the spill, such as the concentration of bitumen or saltwater, he said.<\/p>\n
This particular spill included saltwater, which Timoney said is often \u201cfar more toxic than the oil or bitumen.”<\/p>\n
Oil and bitumen can break down, but salt lasts forever, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese saline spills are extremely serious.”<\/p>\n
The AER spokesperson said any non-compliance penalties, if warranted, will be posted publicly on the agency’s compliance dashboard.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 3 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":394674,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[242,85,46,141],"class_list":{"0":"post-394673","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-il","10":"tag-israel","11":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=394673"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394673\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/394674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=394673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=394673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=394673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}