XL Plating & Machining named responsible party for Fredericton chemical spill

The company behind a chemical spill in Fredericton has been identified.

XL Plating & Machining has been identified as the party responsible for a chemical spill that took place in Fredericton late last week.

Last Thursday, the province was notified about an approximate 900-litre chemical spill along a 14-kilometre stretch of road that includes parts of the Trans-Canada Highway.

NBEMO remains at a “Level 2 – Partial Activation.”

During a news press conference with officials Wednesday, Deputy Minister of Environment and Local Government Charbel Awad confirmed the chemical was tested and found to have hexavalent chromium, which has been known to cause cancer.

“I can’t get into the details, due to the investigation still taking place on precisely what happened,” said Awad on the nature of the spill.

“The information will be made public though once the investigation is complete, and if charges are laid in court, or as part of our after-action report on what transpired in this specific situation.”

The investigation is being led by the authorization and compliance teams within the province’s environment and local government department. A timeline for when the investigation is expected to be completed was not provided during the update.

Awad confirmed XL Plating & Machining would be responsible for the cleanup and remediation costs, but says it is too early to put a price tag on it.

CTV Atlantic reached out to XL Plating & Machining about the spill, but the company declined to offer any further comment at this time.

The spill occurred Wednesday, but it wasn’t until Friday that the government decided to close the road to prevent people driving through the yellow-orange substance. In that time, hundreds of cars drove through the chemical spill, which resulted in car washes being conducted by the province over the past several days.

Officials confirmed they have also received calls from people who live outside of Fredericton who drove through the spill, and are working with them on next steps to deal with the chemical on their cars.

When asked why the province didn’t close the roads sooner, Director of Operations Mark Scott with the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure said closing a major road, particularly the Trans-Canada Highway, is not as simple as it appears.

“It takes a significant amount of time and resources to do so, and we need to do it in a safe manner for both our crews out there as well as the traveling public,” says Scott. “Once we had a better understanding late into Thursday, early into Friday, that we made the decision to close it.”

The majority of the remediation work has been completed, but the weather in the area over the next 24 hours could pose problems for cleanup.

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The chemical spill has not had an impact on Fredericton’s drinking water supply or nearby wells, and Regional Medical Officer of Health Dr. Rita Gad doesn’t expect the weather will change that.

“The wells that are nearby, sampling that’s not only once, it’s also kind of serial sampling,” says Gad, who notes the overall health risk remains low for people who may have driven through the substance.

“We’re actually working with our partners to determine [and] evaluate the risk, as we go. If there is any change in the risk, we’ll let the public know.”

Gad also noted the risk to nearby wildlife as a result of the spill is deemed to be low.

Kevin Burgher with EFI Global, the company hired to lead the cleanup efforts, says they have moved into more of a “assessment evaluation phase” of the cleanup.

“The concern at this point would be around the Allison overpass area, where obviously the vehicle was slower, speeds where there could have been potentially a little bit more dispersed in that area,” says Burgher. “That’s kind of the area where I could expect, based on the results, that maybe a little bit more attention, you might see a little bit more work, whether it’s working on the shoulder, scraping some soils, but the analysis will dictate that work.”

Property assessments are also taking place to inspect residue from vehicles in garages or yards.

Anyone with questions is being told to contact EFI Global on their 24/7 Emergency Spill Line at 1-866-530-4086.

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