How did an Irving station leak so much gas before anyone noticed?

Shane Fowler · CBC News

· Posted: Mar 12, 2025 5:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 11 minutes ago

How did a state presumption leak tens of thousands of litres of state into the crushed without being instantly detected? 

That question is apical of caput for immoderate arsenic cleanup efforts proceed astatine the Murrays Irving and Irving I-24 motortruck halt connected the outskirts of Woodstock.

Since mid-December, vacuum trucks person been moving astir the timepiece astatine the Beardsley Road tract to cleanable up what could total more than 100,000 litres of diesel substance from a cracked tube starring to an underground retention tank. 

But however specified a ample magnitude of substance was capable to leak into the situation without being instantly detected is unclear.

According to documents obtained by CBC News done a right-to-information request, the leak wasn't noticed until contaminants were detected successful the good h2o of a Tim Hortons restaurant crossed the parking lot.

WATCH | How did Irving presumption suffer 100,000 litres of diesel successful a leak and not know?: 

This led to the closure of some the edifice and the Irving presumption portion cleanup crews responded. 

Irving Oil Ltd. has not responded to requests from CBC astir however the leak went undetected. Gas stations successful New Brunswick are required to person systems that observe immoderate leaks.

CBC News asked to talk with idiosyncratic from the Department of Environment astir however it was imaginable the leak went undetected. No 1 from the section was made disposable to reply questions. 

Gas retailers person detection systems

Christine McAllister, proprietor and relation of the Ripples Little River Convenience, eastbound of Fredericton, says there are "checks and balances" to observe leaks adjacent at small autarkic state stations.

"If I person immoderate benignant of instrumentality failure, I person alarms acceptable up," McAllister said. "It's a truly atrocious sound. I've lone had it hap a fewer times for thing truly simple, but it's truly large and piercing. Worse than a occurrence alarm."

Her substance retention vessel is an above-ground model, but the regulations for leak detection are the aforesaid for underground units, she said.. 

McAllister said determination are sensors that observe moisture astir the substance lines astatine her retention tanks, arsenic good arsenic astatine the pumps. But adjacent beyond tripping alarm systems, she said, missing substance would amusement up successful her ledgers. 

"If I'm paying attraction to my numbers, it would fto maine cognize that something's amiss," McAllister said. 

Every day, she prints disconnected a transcript of her substance sales. Then she goes to the retention vessel and measures the substance magnitude utilizing a ample dipstick.

The magnitude of substance sold corresponds with the magnitude near successful her tanks. If immoderate managed to leak retired without tripping an alarm, it would inactive amusement up successful her books. 

She says adjacent if it's a trivial magnitude of leaked substance the nett margins connected substance are truthful bladed that she would inactive notice. 

"If there's immoderate benignant of instrumentality nonaccomplishment it mightiness instrumentality a mates of days, but it wouldn't instrumentality precise agelong for you to fig it out." 

She said her substance supplier, arsenic good arsenic the substance transportation company, besides has entree to those numbers and would instrumentality announcement erstwhile determination are discrepancies. 

"There are times erstwhile they adjacent inquire maine to treble check," McAllister said.

She said she's astatine a nonaccomplishment to explicate however immoderate state presumption could suffer tens of thousands of litres of substance and not notice. 

Green person recalls explosions successful '80s

McAllister said determination weren't ever strict regulations successful spot for storing and selling fuel.

In the 1980s, erstwhile Green Party Leader David Coon was with the Conservation Council of New Brunswick, helium worked connected introducing regulations for substance retention and leak prevention.

"We had a focused run connected that, to bring successful immoderate regulations that would really assistance support radical from leaks, forestall leaks," Coon said successful an interview. 

The effort didn't get overmuch traction until catastrophe struck successful Saint John 1 Saturday greeting successful 1986. A substance leak astatine an Irving state presumption successful the uptown pooled successful the city's tempest sewer strategy and ignited. 

"There were explosions successful Saint John, aggregate explosions successful Saint John; a precise unsafe situation," Coon said of the incident, which damaged 7 buildings and forced the evacuation of a 16-block area.

"And that is what yet convinced authorities of the time to bring successful due regulations. And so, we've got a 67-page regularisation present … in spot since the '80s, to forestall leaks from underground retention tanks and their systems, to guarantee erstwhile determination is simply a leak that it's caught earlier it contaminates anyone's h2o supply."

Coon said he's besides astatine a nonaccomplishment arsenic to however specified a ample leak wasn't instantly detected.

"That regularisation should beryllium doing its job, but precocious it has not," Coon said. "The regulations, if they were decently followed, should person ensured that leak was detected earlier it got arsenic atrocious arsenic it did."

In an email, Environment Department spokesperson Vicky Lutes said Irving Oil has to travel all relevant biology legislation, including the Petroleum Product Storage and Handling Regulation and the Contaminated Sites Regulation.

"Meanwhile, Irving and its consultants are investigating the origin of the release, and remediation efforts astatine the tract are ongoing." Lutes wrote.

"The section is actively reviewing the record to guarantee compliance with biology regulations/ To day the institution has afloat complied with each of our requests."