Two streams, a number of private properties on Rice Lake and the Harwood Fish Culture Station were affected by an oil-like substance following roadwork and a rainstorm last week in Harwood, according to various official reports.

Remedial work by Northumberland County was still being done July 7, a week later, the neighbour who reported the spill to the environment ministry on June 29 told Northumberland Today in an interview Wednesday.

“All the stuff… black goo… was washing off the road,” Delcey Dayman of Rice Lake Scenic Drive, Harwood said about the effects of the storm on the county’s roadwork. “It was pouring into the ditches.”

The ditches lead to two streams, one fast-moving near her property, and both empty directly into Rice Lake, she said.

Wanting to protect the lake where Dayman and her children swim, Dayman called Northumberland County to report the impact of the previous night’s rain storm. She said she also called the environment ministry’s Spill Action line and environmental officer Gary Muloin arrived shortly after that.

Muloin talked to those on site, looked around and then issued a Provincial Officer’s Order dated June 29 instructing Northumberland County to “forthwith do everything practicable to prevent, eliminate and ameliorate the adverse effects caused by the spill of emulsion material and restore the natural environment to before spill conditions.”

Ministry documents state Muloin contacted county staff who said they were on-site attending to the spill and was informed that the spill material was “emulsion product mixed with polymer.”

His report also states that “shortly after” this material was applied to Rice Lake Scenic Drive on June 28 “a heavy rainfall occurred which resulted in the emulsion product running off the road,” which affected private properties along the drive, and that two creeks “were observed to be visually impacted by an oil sheen related to the emulsion runoff.”

The Harwood Fish Culture Station “noted an oil sheen in one of their rearing ponds,” Muloin’s report also stated.

“We bypassed the pond ’round the hatchery… for 24 hours,” acting fish station manager Dave Rosborough told Northumberland Today on Wednesday.

He said that the “fish seem fine” in the short term and that he expects that to be the case in the long term as well. There were 4,000 Atlantic salmon adult brood stock and 100,000 lake trout fingerlings in the hatchery potentially impacted by the oily substance, he said.

Dayman said the county’s remedial work has included digging oil-soaked earth from the ditches and washing down the fence at the Drope Century Farm owned by Pauline Browes on Rice Lake Scenic Drive (also known as County Road 18 and located on the lake side just east of the Harwood Road (also known as County Road 15).

Dayman, who was getting ready to leave for her night shift on the day of the county’s roadwork, said she saw the county spread the black oily emulsion and then a thin layer of chip gravel late on June 28. The construction work covered about a couple of kilometres or Rice Lake Scenic Drive from the Harwood Road east almost to Corkery Road near the fish hatchery. It appeared to her that a storm was brewing, she said. The next day she saw the extent of the runoff from the storm that hit the area.

Roads operations manager Rick English said remediation began the day after the rain and Wednesday (excluding the weekend) cleaning out the contaminated oil that was in the ditches, replacing the top soil and sod and seeding. The county has arranged for well testing on the Drope property, English also said.

“The ministry have been very happy with what we’ve been done to date,” he said, adding he did not expect any charges to be laid by the ministry.

“It’s a very unfortunate situation…. It was a freak storm that came up. When we started oiling in the day it called for a 30% chance of a thunderstorm late in the day, and unfortunately what came through… was horrific.”

“I have just had a slow drive through the area affected on Rice Lake Scenic Drive (County Road 18) and must say that the county workers have done a absolutely brilliant job of cleaning up this avoidable disaster,” Dayman wrote in an e-mail later on Wednesday. “Kudos to all the County workers that have worked so hard to get this mess cleaned up.”

In response to questions from Hamilton Township Deputy Mayor Isobel Hie at council Tuesday night about the spill, Mayor Mark Lovshin said everything was being looked after by the county, including well testing.

“We’re not trying to hide anything,” Lovshin assured her.

At press time Wednesday, environment ministry district supervisor David Bradley could not say if any charges would be laid against Northumberland County or what impact, if any, the incident had on Rice Lake.

via Cleanup continues after emulsion spill – Northumberland Today – Ontario, CA.