At least 174,000 litres of diesel recovered from gas station leak in Woodstock, province says

Shane Fowler · CBC News

· Posted: Apr 10, 2025 2:51 PM EDT | Last Updated: 9 minutes ago

The New Brunswick government now says 174,000 litres of diesel substance leaked from an Irving state presumption successful Woodstock, up from earlier an estimate of 100,000 litres. 

And it's significantly larger than the 5,000 litres archetypal estimated erstwhile the leak was discovered successful December.

"To date, astir 174,000 litres of diesel has been recovered," said Vicky Lutes, spokesperson for the Department of Environment and Climate Change, successful an email.

Back successful mid-December, a Tim Hortons connected Beardsley Road, which is beside Murray's Irving state presumption and restaurant, reported its h2o was contaminated with fuel. That led the edifice and state presumption to close pursuing the find of the diesel leak at the Irving. 

The caller fig comes two days aft the department announced it was launching provincewide inspections of retail state stations to "confirm regulatory compliance and to guarantee that tract owners person due measures successful spot for detecting and managing petroleum merchandise spills."

The connection posted connected the Department of the Environment website besides says the inspections have been launched after "receiving further accusation past week from Irving Oil Ltd. connected the circumstances of the spill."

CBC News requested an interrogation with Environment Minister Gilles LePage to inquire astir the inspections, but was told he was unavailable.

On March 25, LePage said successful the legislature there was an probe into the leak. CBC News has requested further details astir that process, but the section has not provided any. 

In the much than 3 months since CBC News began reporting connected this leak, nary 1 from the Department of Environment oregon Irving Oil Ltd. has been made disposable to reply questions astir the leak and the potential risks to section good water.

According to documents obtained by CBC News done a close to accusation request, the diesel leak was archetypal detected connected Dec. 13, 2024.

Irving Oil Ltd. was deemed the enactment liable for the leak by the province. A faulty elbow tube starring to an underground retention vessel was recovered to beryllium the source. But truthful acold neither Irving Oil nor the state have stated however agelong the substance had been leaking. 

Some radical successful Woodstock person said they detected diesel successful the h2o astatine the Tim Hortons respective weeks earlier thing was done. 

According to Service New Brunswick's property-based biology accusation database, determination are 4 double-walled underground substance retention tanks astatine the Beardsley Road Irving station, which are registered with the state nether the Petroleum Product Storage and Handling Regulations.

Three are utilized to store diesel, portion the 4th houses gasoline. One of those diesel tanks was installed successful 2003 and holds 65,000 litres of fuel. A second 50,000-litre tank was besides installed successful 2003. The 3rd was installed successful 2016 and has a retention capableness of 100,000 litres. It is unclear which vessel housed the faulty elbow pipe. But each grip little substance than is reported to person leaked. 

Those aforesaid documents list the Irving Oil spot and the neighbouring Tim Hortons arsenic contaminated with petroleum, and they accidental Irving Oil Ltd. is the enactment liable for remediation.  

CBC News requested an interrogation with Irving Oil Ltd. but did not person a response. 

On April 7, the company issued a connection connected its website about the spill.

"On-site filtration systems ensured nationalist information was not compromised astatine immoderate clip arsenic a effect of this incident. Potable good h2o investigating – some regulated and voluntary – has been ongoing successful the surrounding country with results consistently falling wrong harmless parameters," the connection says.

That connection goes connected to accidental that "systems and processes successful spot to support against and forestall this unfortunate incidental did not run arsenic intended. We person undertaken a thorough and extended reappraisal of this substance to forestall further occurrences."