Largest Diesel Land Spill occurred at Pukatawagan

Everyone in Puk knows the challenges that we have faced in the past 20 years with dealing with our contaminated Soil. In the 50's, MB Hydro brought in a diesel generator to power the Indian Agents house, the old church, the nursing station and the old school. It was later transferred over to Indian Affairs. For unknown reasons, whether it was improperly installed or because of aging, the diesel began leaking out and it has been estimated that approximately 500,000 gallons of diesel was spilt over a period of 30 years! We have been looking at the volume of diesel that leaked out of MB Hydro's Generator Station and we believe that this diesel spill is the largest spill ever that has occurred on land. This diesel saturated the soil down to the bedrock and then began spreading out, contaminating larger and larger areas of land. Because there was so much difficulty in getting one of the two agencies, either MB Hydro or Indian affairs, to accept responsibility there was a longer and longer delay in cleaning up the affected area and the contamination continued to spread while we were trying to get them to hurry and clean it up.


In the early 90's, Missinnippi Construction, our local construction company, began cleaning out the old soil and we continue to do so today. This is done by digging it out and transporting it in dump trucks up to the drying location. Here the old soil is laid flat to allowed to air dry. Once a site is deemed to be free from contamination by a series of techniques, the large hole is then filled in with new clean soil from another location.

This has been going on for the past 22 years! In the process, all buildings that were once on top of that land have been demolished to make way for the clean up. As it was located in the heart of the community, we lost the Community Complex (Band Office, community hall, grocery store and hotel), a large number of houses around the sites, various office buildings and a number of small businesses.

As the buildings were demolished so was the community spirit. We took pride in having a state of the art Facility which provided a gathering place for all our community events. We took pride in giving tours of the large number of structures that sat at the heart of our home and provided for our economic initiatives.

The final cleanup is nearing completion and negotiations are under way with the federal government for replacing the capital buildings that were lost. Once we are successful, the results would benefit the community in so many ways. Obviously, a new state of the art facility to replace the one lost would provide a structure for our band offices, community offices and hotel. It would provide a community hall to allow for members to come and gather for community events and our public meetings. It would provide a central location for all people to come together and interact on a daily basis. This would strengthen our community, strengthen our people and strengthen our future.