Mr. Speaker, the Deh Cho Drum took the recent contamination of the Trout Lake oil spill so seriously that they called it the Exxon Valdez of Trout Lake.
Trout Lake is a small, fly-in-only community in the Nahendeh riding. People take pride in their traditions, their pristine surroundings and still live off the land. They use the lake for drinking water and to fish and to provide sustenance. They have protected their environment for a long time and are proud for the food it provides to them.
At this time people in my constituency are still very concerned about what was allowed to happen: 9,500 litres of diesel fuel escaped from a seeping pipe at a Northland Utilities power station tank. Nine thousand five hundred litres in one 45-gallon drum is 200 litres, Mr. Speaker. That's 50 drums of diesel fuel that spilled onto the land, and some it made its way onto the lake. The diesel fuel soaked through the soil and into drainage ditches and, like I said, made its way onto the frozen lake.
This contamination was avoidable. How could it happen? Once again, this was a preventable accident. The community of Trout Lake wants answers. I want answers. The people want to make sure that nothing similar can happen again.
Since the spill occurred at the beginning of May, most of the fuel has been cleaned up, and everybody tells the people of Trout Lake not to worry, but worry they do. Now their precious water is being monitored, and specialists are planning for decontaminating the poisoned soil. Northland Utilities has installed new flexible piping and has looked into changing the fuel pipes from the bottom to the top of their tanks.
To make sure that all is done right, the environmental protection unit of Environment and Natural Resources is monitoring all of the damage control and cleanup.
Once again, this did not have to happen. I want to know: what had they done before the spill occurred to protect Trout Lake? I will have questions for the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources at the appropriate time. Mahsi cho.
The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.
