De Beers fined $350,000 for diesel spill at former N.W.T. mine site

De Beers Canada has been ordered to pay a $350,000 fine for an oil spill at its former Snap Lake diamond mine site five years ago. 

An employee failed to close the storage tank valve when refilling the tank on December 7, 2017.

This caused the tank’s overfilling and around 1,100 litres Diesel were released into our environment.

The Canadian Environmental Protection Act charges were brought up by the diamond mining company. Monday’s sentence was handed down in territorial court. 

According to the agreement statement of facts, the employee who forgot closing the valve had been working until 2:30 a.m. on the previous morning to repair a generator that was damaged during a power outage at the mine. Also, the incident occurred right before a shift change. 

Later that day, a member of the new crew found the error and De Beers reported it to the authorities on December 8, 2017. Its initial report estimated that only about 500 litres had overflowed from the tank. That was revised to 5,903 litres in a follow-up report to the Mackenzie Valley Land and Water Board (MVLWB) on Dec. 20, and then again revised “following further investigation.”

De Beers now believes that the spillage was less than 1,125 litres.   

Four drums of contaminated powder were dumped by employees of De Beers in the area affected. The tank’s proximity and other equipment made it impossible to exhume frozen ground.

Environmental impact

The company and the territorial government began conducting environmental inspections in January 2018. Initial assessments indicated that there had been no environmental damage. The inspection report found a diesel smell in May and a staining of the ground from the spillage in July.

De Beers excavated three test pits in Aug. 2018 to determine the extent of the oil-spill. Three of the sites revealed that diesel had likely penetrated the ground beneath and dispersed from the spillage site.

Further testing was done by De Beers in 2019/2020 and approved by MVLWB. It found no trace of hydrocarbons in surface water. said The spillage “is not expected” to have adverse effects on aquatic life, is not a risk to human health and has not affected water quality. 

Update procedures

De Beers updated its operating procedures following the spillage to make it clear that any worker responsible for refueling the tank must call another employee as soon as the process begins. This eliminates the need to rely on one worker. 

The company also pledged to share training documents with employees. 

Monday’s sentencing was accepted and accepted by the judge. It was a joint submission made by Morgan Fane, Crown Prosecutor, and Melanie Gaston, who was representing De Beers. 

Fane listed De Beers’s guilty plea and ongoing cooperation are mitigation factors. Fane acknowledged that the company had to be fined above $100,000 due to oil seeping into ground and causing “potential harm”. 

He said While the conviction is deterrent, it is not enough. There is also an obligation to “contribute towards a corporate environment that this doesn’t occur” and to make sure that any spillages that do happen are “properly clean up.” 

Terry Kruger, spokesperson for De Beers, sent an email statement. said The company accepts full responsibility for this unfortunate incident

He stated, “We are aware that we have a huge responsibility to protect the places in which we work so we have tried to do everything in our power not just to respond to the incident but also to learn from it to ensure that there is no recurrence.” said. 

De Beers will have until December 31, 2022 to pay $350,000. 

The money will be donated to the National Environmental Damages Fund. The court has recommended that a portion or all of the fine is paid to an organization seeking funding to fund an environmental project in Northwest Territories. 

De Beers is closing Snap Lake Mine in 2015, and the tank where the spillage took place continues to be operational.

De Beers and Environment and Climate Change Canada have concluded that the area is too dangerous to be remediated while the electrical cables and other power supply “permanent infrastructural” are still present. De Beers will continue to monitor the situation and then complete remediation after the mine is closed.