An Alberta couple is devastated and in shock after their property was soaked with oil from a pipeline spill this week that is believed to have poured up to 475,000 litres of crude into a Red Deer River tributary.
Gord and Bonnie Johnston have deserted their 23-hectare rural property and are now living on credit cards and wondering what to do next.
"There's not words to describe it and I don't understand how this can happen with today's technology," a visibly shaken Gord Johnston told CTV's Question Period Sunday.
"There are oil pools on the water, there's a sheen and it's all the through the grasses, the brush and the water forced it up and through everything," he said from his property in Sundre, about 100 kilometres southwest of Red Deer.
"How do you deal with that? How do you clean that up? You can't."
Plains Midstream Canada said the oil spilled and then leaked into Jackson Creek that flows into the Red Deer River near Sundre.
In a news release Saturday, the company said the oil has been contained within two booms it placed on the Gleniffer Reservoir.
It also said that an additional boom was being positioned on the west end of the reservoir to expedite the cleanup.
"We deeply regret any impact this incident may have on local residents," the news release stated.
That's not comforting news for the Johnstons, who believe their health will be adversely affected if they return to live on the land they once called home.
"I believe my property is done, like this stuff is full of all kinds of toxins and carcinogens, how can my kids, my grandkids . . . how can we come back to this and live here and swim, fish and boat," Gord Johnston said.
"Where are we going to be in five years? Are we even going to be alive if we stay? I highly don't think so," he said as oil-coated rushes behind him wavered in a breeze, but looked more like a row of automobile dipsticks.
He doesn't know much about maintenance on the pipeline, but Johnston said he's positive it had a similar problem a few years ago.
"We flew directly to the spot we figured it was and we could see it bubbling out of the Red Deer River," he said.
Bonnie Johnston said she's devastated by the spill and said it's likely she and her husband are still in shock.
"I don't think we've come to truly understand what this is going to do to us," she said.
Gord Johnston said the company promised security for his property the night of the spill after they decided to leave, but that help never arrived.
"As you can see around there is no security and there's been a barrage of people, which is good," he said.
"I'm glad people do come down to see this because I want them to see it and I want everybody to see that you shouldn't have to go through this," Gord Johnston said.
"This is my world here. I didn't break it, they broke it."
Alberta Premier Alison Redford assured Albertans on Saturday that the co-ordination to deal with the spill has been moving quickly.
Redford has said this latest oil spill has raised questions about how oil pipelines are monitored and regulated.
She has promised a full investigation and said if there are safety shortfalls the government will make changes, but insisted spills are not the norm.
But for the Johnstons, that assurance comes too late.
"They come into my shop, my place, my world, my ecosystem and they destroyed it and ruined it," he said.
"They gotta do something."
