Selkirk, Man. residents raise concerns after large fuel leak at nearby gas station

People in Selkirk, Man., are raising concerns after a large fuel leak happened in their neighbourhood.

A Manitoba Avenue gas station Selkirk One Stop is actively cleaning up an estimated 50,000 litres that spilled last week, Peguis Development Corporation project manager Toby Laviolette told Global News on Thursday.

Nearby residents like Linda Paluck say nobody alerted them of the incident.

“I would just like to have been told what’s happening over there, whether I needed to be worried about it or not,” she said.

Paluck, who’s been living in the neighbourhood for more than 50 years, said she’s never heard of anything like this happening in the area.

“There’s been trucks over there for two weeks now I think, and they’re pumping something, but I have no idea what they’re doing,” Paluck said. “It would have been nice to have a heads up.”

This was echoed by Amanda France, another resident living down the street.

“We have kids here, and I wouldn’t want to see anyone hurt.”

Peguis Development Corporation, which owns the gas station, first noticed an unusual odour March 28th.

The City of Selkirk fire and public works departments looked into the smell on Tuesday, Laviolette said.

Staff determined the city’s utilities were functioning properly and didn’t detect fuel in the sewer system at the time, a spokesperson with the city said, adding officials directed PDC to further investigate the situation.

It was later in the day a leak was discovered, Laviolette said.

“Once they went into the system to start the pressure test, they found this leak,” he said. “We’ve been in clean-up mode ever since.”

PDC notified Manitoba Conservation on March 31, the province said.

As of last Friday, 30,000 litres had been recovered, with no fuel found off site, on the surface or outside the tank nest, a provincial spokesperson said in an email Friday.

But the City of Selkirk says it wasn’t notified of an official leak.

“City staff followed up with Pegius over the phone to see if there was anything to be concerned about,” the city spokesperson said.

As of Friday morning, it was still awaiting a response from PDC — just like residents living near the site.

“Next time something like this happens, we would like to know something. Someone come to the door, notify the neighbours,” France said.

Although the environmental impact of the incident is unclear, PDC says the cleanup is almost finished.

“Once the main leak has been addressed … once the wells are dry again, we’ll be doing some core testing to determine the extent of the leak,” Laviolette said.

In a release issued late Friday afternoon, PDC said experts were assessing the situation and running tests to determine the origin and size of the leak.

“The gas station was newly built, and there appears to have been some deficiencies in the original construction based on our early assessments,” PDC said. “We have notified our insurer. We have also put the contractor on notice of a potential claim.

“In the interim, we are committed to cleaning up the gasoline leak and restoring service to our customers as quickly as possible.”

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