Pipestone Flyer
Leduc County council denied an application for Halliburton to build an oilfield chemical storage facility in the Nisku Business Park.
At the June 3 council meeting, Division 5 Councillor Tanni Doblanko moved the application be denied because it was not the right location for the facility, which would have included an office, warehouse and blending room along with twenty 125,000 L tanks and a 10-car rail spur on 14 acres on a 25-acre parcel situated 800 meters from residents and adjacent to the Blackmud Creek plain.
“It’s simply the wrong place for this site,” said Doblanko.
Council agreed, unanimously voting against the application.
“The main concerns were the day to day operation and the possibility of vapours,” said resident Lucille Low. “The creek was essential to us, the fact there could have been chemicals running into the creek.”
In previous presentations, Halliburton assured the safety of residents and a risk assessment done by and Doug McCutcheon of McCutcheon and Associates Consulting said the company was providing primary, secondary and tertiary containment in the event of a chemical spill.
County Mayor John Whaley said the location would be better suited to an industrial area, that it was just too close to homes.
“When you start the process you try and work with the application to find if there are ways and, obviously, it wasn’t going to work in the end. We had to make a tough decision.”
Following the County’s decision, Halliburton expressed its disappointment in a statement.
“Halliburton is disappointed that the Leduc County Council did not approve our plans for the Multi-Chem blending facility. We are evaluating our options for the property and our plans for the facility.”
In their written decision, council said although the proposed location was not appropriate for such a facility, there may be other sites in the County better suited to the needs of Halliburton and would encourage the application to bring the proposal back at a different location.