Oil leaks out of Nova Scotia Power generating station into Halifax harbour

HALIFAX – Crews set up booms and were trying to suction up oil that spilled into Halifax harbour from a Nova Scotia Power generating station on the city’s waterfront.

In a statement late Thursday, the utility would only say that the spill involved a “limited” amount of oil at the Tufts Cove generating station that afternoon.

“Plant staff immediately activated environmental response protocols by shutting off oil flow through the pipe to stop the leak, deploying a boom in the area of the water nearest to the leak, and alerting the company’s environmental services contractors who happened to be on site at the time,” the statement said.

It said contractors then set up a second, larger boom to contain the oil sheen in front of the plant, while a vacuum truck started cleaning up oil in the water.

The company said the oil came from an exterior pipe that runs from “storage tanks along the harbour-side of the facility into the plant,” which is tucked in a small cove on the Dartmouth side of the busy harbour and just outside the Bedford basin.

It said it would continue cleaning up all of the oil in the inlet water, shoreline area and soil, while providing an update later Friday.

“Nova Scotia Power and its contractor will continue to implement environmental response and monitoring protocols until all of the leaked oil has been cleaned up,” the statement reads.

“All appropriate operational procedures and protocols have been activated, and relevant regulatory bodies have been notified of the incident.”