TransCanada holds spill training on South Saskatchewan

By Tim Kalinowski on July 14, 2017.

tkalinowski@medicinehatnews.com @MHNTimKal

Boat crews and a ground support unit from TransCanada Pipelines on Thursday held oil spill containment exercises near Echo Dale Regional Park. Crews deployed booms, skimmers and practised every step of the containment methods they would use if a real-life oil spill were to occur in the South Saskatchewan River.

“TransCanada conducts over 100 training exercises and response scenarios each year to ensure our ability to respond rapidly and co-ordinate effectively with first responders,” said spokesperson Matthew John. “Our response exercises are often evaluated by regulators to ensure regulatory compliance and demonstrate our ability to respond, safely and efficiently… Today we are simulating an oil release in the South Saskatchewan River and testing our ability to respond and deploy containment and recovery materials. We are also training our co-ordination with first responders from the Medicine Hat fire department.”

John said such exercises were vital to keeping crews sharp and effective, and working well with local municipalities when such spills, on occasion, do occur.

“It’s absolutely critical to conduct regular ongoing incident response training and coordination with first responders. Safety is our number one priority at TransCanada and we take that commitment very seriously… We sincerely appreciate the support and participation from Medicine Hat Fire Department in this deployment training, and we look forward to continuing our relationship,” he said.

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