A hydraulic oil release at Lafarge’s Exshaw plant on Saturday (Oct. 18) has EnviroHazmat Emergency Response workers cleaning contaminated areas and prompted classes to be cancelled at the nearby school.
An estimated 41 litres of hydraulic oil was released following an incident involving the erection of a large crane used in construction. While the crane supplier, Mammoet, was erecting the machine there was a failure in its two shock dampers, resulting in fluid being sprayed across the hamlet.
High-speed winds are suspected to have contributed to the spread of the release, which reached as far as Pigeon Mountain Drive, approximately 900 metres away.
Shell’s Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) has classified hydraulic fluid as “not expected to be a health hazard when used under normal conditions,” however, Canadian Rockies Public Schools (CRPS) shut down Exshaw School, adjacent to Lafarge, as a precaution on Monday (Oct. 20).
“The vigilance is around our children and making sure their safety is first and that’s what we’re doing. Lafarge has come in and they’re doing their due-diligence on their side too,” said CRPS Superintendent Chris MacPhee.
“Right now we don’t think there are any major concerns, but we do want the place cleaned thoroughly because young children will end up playing and getting this on their hands and stuff like that, so in a due diligence manner we’ll shut the school for the day until everything is cleaned.”
According to the MSDS, the oil is not classified as flammable, but will burn, and is not dangerous for the environment, nor is it corrosive.
MacPhee and the CRPS health and safety coordinator say the school will only be closed down for one day while EnviroHazmat Emergency Response workers clean the property.
Lafarge contacted Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resource Development (ESRD) and Alberta Health Services shortly after the incident on Saturday. Jamie Hanlon, public affairs officer at ESRD, said Lafarge’s environmental consultants are preparing a remediation plan that will be shared with ESRD shortly.
“They (Lafarge) are expected to provide us with an incident report within seven days and that will outline how the company will prevent the reoccurrence of this type of incident along with a number of action items. Right now with the current information available, we do not have any environmental impact concerns; that’s with the information we have at this point.”
Lafarge apologized for the incident and representatives have gone door to door in the hamlet to inform residents of the release, while car wash vouchers were provided and property cleanup crews are identifying impacted properties.
Playgrounds in public areas were cleaned up on Saturday while EnviroHazmat teams, hired by Lafarge, began cleaning the area on Sunday, where a priority was cleaning the school area. Cleanup efforts continue around the hamlet.
“Our next steps are going to be assessing exactly where it is,” said Michelle Gurney, communications and community relations at Lafarge. “We’ll have somebody do a tour of the town with a map and identify the highest impact area; we’re still working on that.”
Lafarge is currently is the midst of a modernization of the plant scheduled for completion by June 2015, which will include a new kiln line and cost over $400 million.
