The Squamish Chief requested an update from the provincial Ministry of Environment on prevention of spills on the Woodfibre LNG site after a leachate spill occurred in November.
The spill in the last week of November was at least 100 metres back from Mill Creek, which empties into Howe Sound, according to the ministry.
“While we can confirm some of the spilling was completely contained, given the circumstances – during heavy rain events – it is undetermined if any leachate water made it into Howe Sound,” said a ministry representative in an email to The Chief on Friday.
According to the same spokesman, no further leachate spills have been reported since November.
About 3,000 litres of clean water and landfill leachate spilled on the south side of the Woodfibre site on Sept. 8.
Woodfibre LNG has installed and commissioned a second identical leachate treatment system, which runs parallel to the original.
This system started discharging treated effluent into Howe Sound in mid-January and is expected to be in place until the end of the spring, the spokesman said.
"The effluent goes through a series of procedures including an aeration tank, flocculation and settling tank, sand filtration and carbon filtration," he said, adding that the earlier spills were not treated in this way and so were not considered of an acceptable standard to be discharged into the sound.
"The outflow is regularly sampled and analysed in accordance with the permit conditions and a report is submitted tot the Ministry of Environment on a quarterly basis."
BC Government authorizations are searchable online at: https://j200.gov.bc.ca/pub/ams/Default.aspx?PossePresentation=DocumentSearch
