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Uqsuq Corp. investigates mysterious fuel spill on Iqaluit's causeway

A cleanup is underway on Iqaluit's causeway after Uqsuq Corp. workers found a diesel spill they traced to a section of pipe used for summer resupply.

It's still not clear how much fuel leaked, or what caused it.

The spill was detected Feb. 8 during a regular inspection, said Franco Buscemi, Uqsuq's general manager. He said the pipe is only active when fuel is piped in to the tank farm from a tanker ship in Frobisher Bay.

"We immediately put our spill response plan into action," he said.

"We were able to contain the spill quickly and we're now remediating the site."

According to Buscemi, workers built containment walls out of snow, then brought in a crew to dig out trenches to "try and track which way the fuel was going."

The City of Iqaluit closed the road to the area on Saturday for approximately two weeks upon the request of Uqsuq.

Buscemi said that's because they plan to dig up part of the road to track the spill, "to make sure that it hasn't gone anywhere we're not aware of."

Uqsuq planned to fly in an engineer Monday to investigate why there was a failure in that section of the pipe. He expects a complete report in a couple of weeks.

"The number one thing right now is we want to keep the fuel out of the water."