A boom stretches out to contain a pipeline leak on the Gleniffer Reservoir near Innisfail on June 12, 2012. Up to 480,000 litres of sour crude oil was spilled from the Plains Midstream Canada pipeline.
Photograph by: Herald files/Canadian Press, THE CANADIAN PRESS

June 12, 2012: This photo five days after the spill shows a heavily coated band of balsam poplar and wolf willow. This material partly evaporated and oxidized, and then the contacted leaves fell off.
Photograph by: Stewart Rood, Handout

Aug. 30, 2012: By the end of the summer, there was only a faint staining on the stems of the balsam poplar and wolf willow that had been heavily coated during the first few days after the crude oil spill.
Photograph by: Stewart Rood, Handout

June 12, 2012: Oil coats the river bank a few days after the spill. Much of the material evaporated over the early weeks. This left a sticky residue that was then oxidized by exposure to the sunshine and air to produce a chalky grey coating.
Photograph by: Stewart Rood, Handout

Aug. 30, 2012: By the end of the summer, only a faint dark staining could be seen on the cobbles and gravel that had been coated in oil in the first week after the spill.
Photograph by: Stewart Rood, Handout

A pond closed due to an oil spill into the Red Deer River has reopened for fishing this spring, but restrictions remain for the rest of the affected area.

Last June, a Plains Midstream Canada pipeline leaked up to 480,000 litres of sour crude oil into the central Alberta river.

The Dickson Trout Pond, which had fishing conditions placed on it after the leak, was given the all-clear earlier this month by Alberta Health Services.

“There is no risk for human consumption of the stocked trout in the pond,” said an emailed statement from Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resource Development.

As a result, spokeswoman Nikki Booth said, the pond was reopened April 1.

“People can actually go to the Dickson Trout Pond and fish,” she said, noting restrictions remain in other areas.

Further testing is needed, such as monitoring of contaminant levels in the Mountain Whitefish spawning area, and population studies to determine whether fish in the Red Deer River and Gleniffer Reservoir are healthy enough to eat. This is not expected to be complete until later this fall or early this winter.

“We’re basically making sure there is no residual levels of contamination and that they are safe for human consumption and that they are reproducing at a suitable level that harvest could occur,” Booth said.

She said the catch-and-release regulations are expected to remain on the flowing waters in the Red Deer River system above the Dickson Dam for this year.

The information, which was requested by the Herald in January and released by the province this week, came just days after Plains Midstream issued its latest update.

The company said it’s preparing a schedule for the spring inspection and monitoring activities along the Red Deer River and Gleniffer Lake.

“Regulatory agencies, along with Plains, will return to the area in summer 2013 to reinspect the cleaned sites and evaluate the effectiveness of the cleanup and restoration activities,” said the update.

Plains Midstream said it presented its summary of fish tissue sample results and aquatic monitoring results to Alberta Environment in December.

Water quality also continues to be monitored.

Information presented at a recent water conference in Red Deer suggested the spill was less catastrophic than originally thought.

Stewart Rood, a professor in environmental science at the University of Lethbridge who researched the spill, said the booms put in the reservoir did a fairly good job at containing the surface oil.

“Within a crude oil mixture, there are some substances that are water soluble,” he said in an interview. “Those materials then move downstream with the flowing water.”

Testing, however, showed there was no impact to downstream water quality.

“Keep in mind that this event coincided with a flood and, in fact, it was the physical erosion from the flood that exposed and then ruptured the pipe,” said Rood. “The fortunate things about this is, with a vast volume of water flowing, the dilution was fairly substantial.”

He added, however, that the June 7 spill into the Red Deer river was both significant and instructive.

Some of the other findings showed that the floodplain vegetation acted like a filter, contacting and collecting the floating oil; the coating became less oily and less sticky over the early weeks; the oil coating caused a temporary reduction in shoot growth; and, after 10 weeks, there was little contaminant left on the vegetation due to evaporation and oxidation.

His recommendations included: avoiding braided channels when building pipelines; shutting off flows on pipelines during flood events, which is current policy; and, limiting the amount of vegetation removed in floodplain zone since natural recovery will occur.

cderworiz@calgaryherald.com

SALT LAKE CITY - State regulators have slapped Chevron with a violation notice over a March fuel spill near a northern Utah bird refuge.

The Utah Division of Water Quality is asking Chevron to provide a report on cleanup operations and a response plan for the pipeline rupture that leaked about 21,000 gallons of diesel fuel.

The split in the pipeline running between Salt Lake City and Spokane, Wash., spilled diesel at Willard Bay State Park and near the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge.

Division Director Walt Baker said his agency is working with the Attorney General's Office to ensure Chevron is held accountable for the spill and its impacts.

"This release has had a significant effect on a fragile ecosystem," he said. "The popular bird-watching and recreational area has been closed because of this spill."

State law gives the company 30 days to respond to the violation notice and 60 days to address the compliance requirements. Water quality officials then would determine any state fines.

"We are committed to co-operating with the Utah Division of Water Quality and responding to the notice in the required time frame," Chevron spokesman Gareth Johnstone said in an email.

Federal regulators, who fined Chevron nearly $500,000 for two Utah spills in 2010, haven't determined penalties for the company's latest petroleum leak.

The 8-inch-diameter pipeline failed March 18, spilling fuel in the marshes. State officials credit a beaver dam for holding back much of the fuel, although it left a family of beavers with petroleum burns. The beavers are being nursed back to health at a wildlife rehabilitation centre.

The spill also has been blamed for the deaths of a pair of wood ducks as well as some frogs and minnow-like fish, The Salt Lake Tribune reported. Migratory birds have been scared away from the area by the presence of more than 100 cleanup workers.

State officials said some of the spilled fuel is seeping into groundwater and making its way beyond containment booms at Willard Bay State Park. They have said a cleanup could take months instead of weeks as originally thought, leaving the park indefinitely closed.

More than 136,000 kilograms of litter was cleaned from shorelines during the 2012 Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup.
Photograph by: photo courtesy of Vancouver Aquarium , WWF

Imagine if the entire length of highway between Vancouver and Thunder Bay was littered with debris such as cigarette butts, plastic bags, and food containers. That stretch of highway is the approximate length of shoreline (a little over 3,000 kilometres) that was cleaned during the 2012 Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup, a joint collaboration between the Vancouver Aquarium and WWF, and the largest direct-action public conservation effort in the country.

It's a lot of litter (over 136,000 kilograms worth), but it doesn't even come close to encompassing the total amount of litter that still plagues Canada's shorelines (anywhere where land meets water), and negatively impacts surrounding communities and wildlife.

That's why this year, even more volunteers and site co-ordinators are needed to battle shoreline litter, a major environmental issue.

"No matter what form it comes in, shoreline litter and pollution puts ecosystems, wildlife and people at risk," says Jill Dwyer, program manager for the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup. "This litter can negatively impact water quality through contamination, as well as the health of plants and animals that live in that ecosystem."

The results of shoreline litter are far-reaching:

. Shoreline litter poses danger for people and causes economic damage to areas that rely on tourism or water-based industries, like fishing.

. Local wildlife run the risk of getting tangled in or ingesting litter or other pollutants.

. Organisms often attach to litter as it flows through water systems, causing invasive species to infiltrate foreign habitats and damage the sensitive balance of the ecosystem.

. Wildlife entangled in litter such as plastic bags, six-pack rings, ribbon, fishing line or food wrappers can have their movements restricted, be injured or even eventually drown, suffocate or starve.

. Animals like sea turtles often mistake plastic bags for jellyfish and swallow them. This clogs their digestive tracts, leading to starvation and death.

. Water quality is affected by the toxins emitted from litter.

The good news is that you can be part of the solution to keep our shorelines healthy for your community and wildlife. During last year's cleanup effort in B.C., over 136,036 kg of litter was collected from the province's shorelines, but there's more where that came from.

This fall, the national cleanup effort will take place from Sept. 21 to 29. Online registration opens in May at ShorelineCleanup.ca, or sign up today by emailing ShorelineCleanup@vanaqua.org.

Homes dot the hills on the southwest side of Lake Mead, Tuesday, April 16, 2013, in Boulder City, Nev. Water levels of the man-made lake, which was created by the damning of the Colorado River at Black Canyon, are expected to drop this summer. Citing drought and demand, advocacy group American Rivers is calling the Colorado River the nation's most endangered waterway. The group's annual report follows a federal Bureau of Reclamation study that says that over the next 50 years the Colorado River will run short of supply for the more than 40 million people it serves in Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)

LAS VEGAS, Nev. - Drought and demand are pushing the Colorado River beyond its limits — with the needs of more than 40 million people in seven Western states projected to outstrip dwindling supply over the next 50 years, according to an advocacy group's report on endangered rivers released on Wednesday.

The annual top-10 list by Washington, D.C.-based American Rivers points to a three-year federal Bureau of Reclamation study that warned last December that the river won't always be able to serve all the residents, businesses, ranchers, Native Americans and farmers who rely upon it.

Already, the Colorado River is drained of nearly every drop by the time it reaches Mexico, American Rivers spokeswoman Amy Kober said.

The list, produced with Protect the Flows and Nuestro Rio, notes that the Colorado is sometimes called the most controlled and plumbed river on Earth, and has more dams and diversions planned. River water irrigates nearly 4 million acres of farmland, which yield about 15 per cent of the nation's crops, and serves as a primary drinking water supply for cities including Denver, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Phoenix.

The report lists 10 other rivers at risk from drought, overuse and pollution, including the Flint River in Georgia, the San Saba River in Texas, the Little Plover River in Wisconsin and the Catawba River in the Carolinas.

Federal and local officials planned to highlight the threat to the Colorado River at a news conference Wednesday at a marina on the scenic but drought-scarred Lake Mead reservoir behind Hoover Dam. A white "bathtub ring" of minerals stretches more than 100 feet up the rocky shoreline from the current water line to the 1983 high-water mark. Officials say Lake Mead is still about half-full.

The listing drew an endorsement from a top Interior Department official, who praised it for "bringing further visibility to the problems facing this critical resource."

"The river is the essential foundation to the health and prosperity of the American Southwest." Assistant Interior Secretary for Water and Science Anne Castle said in a statement. It "provides multiple and diverse benefits including water supplies for agriculture and people, outdoor recreation, clean energy generation, and unparalleled ecosystems."

Kober noted the Colorado River also topped the America's Most Endangered Rivers list in 1991 and 2004, and made the list in 1992, 1997, 1998 and 2010. Rankings are determined by nomination from river groups and advocates based on the size of the threat, the significance of the waterway to people and nature and whether it can help influence action in the coming year.

"The bureau report underscores that there's not enough water to meet demand," Kober said. "No one is going to fix the Colorado River in one year. But we need people to come together and we need Congress to fund efforts like WaterSMART and Title XVI."

Title XVI is a Bureau of Reclamation-led water recycling and reuse program. WaterSMART, an acronym for Sustain and Manage America's Resources for Tomorrow, was established in February 2010 to co-ordinate and encourage the efficient use of water and a blend of hydrologic and energy policies.

Castle noted that in addition to completing the 163-page Colorado River Basin Water Supply and Demand Study, the federal government signed a recent supplement to a Colorado River water use treaty with Mexico. It provides for international co-operation to ensure that river water reaches the Gulf of California for the first time in decades.

The 1.1 million-acre Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in Minnesota ranked sixth on the Endangered Waters list, followed by the Black Warrior River in Alabama, the Rough and Ready and Baldface creeks in Oregon, the Kootenai River in Canada, Montana and Idaho and the Niobrara River in Nebraska, South Dakota and Wyoming.

The Merced River, which flows through Yosemite Valley in California, was added to the list due to concerns that Congress may weaken wild and scenic protections, Kober said.

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