Edmonton

Officials investigating contaminant spill site in northern Alberta

Officials with the Alberta government and the Energy Resources Conservation Board (ERCB) are investigating after a contaminant spill near Zama City in northwestern Alberta.

Officials with the Alberta government and the Energy Resources Conservation Board (ERCB) are investigating after a spill near Zama City in northern Alberta.

The spill, which consisted of an emulsion of water, oil and other chemicals, was reported to the province by Apache Corporation on June 1.

The pipeline has been shut down and the managing company is now working on containment.

Both the the Alberta Environment Support and Emergency Response Team and  ERCB are working with Apache to assess the situation and ensure containment of the emulsion waters.

"At this point, we're still monitoring wetlands and water bodies near the break so I don't have information on impact on wetlands and water bodies are," said Nikki Booth, who speaks for the province. "But we do know at this point in time there's no indication there's been any impact to the Zama river."

It's not yet clear how much emulsion water spilled or what caused the incident. 

Zama City is about 80 kilometres north of High Level.