PRINCE ALBERT, Sask. — The city manager for Prince Albert, Sask., says a temporary pipeline to bolster the city's water supply during an oil spill cleanup on the nearby North Saskatchewan River won't be ready until Friday.
The line — essentially a giant hose — runs about 30 kilometres to the South Saskatchewan River, but Jim Toye says pumps to move the water are not ready.
Until that happens, the city will draw water from its retention pond, which will add an extra four to five days to the overall supply.
Prince Albert officials have said water usage has clearly gone down since restrictions were put in place earlier this week after the water treatment plant intake on the North Saskatchewan was shut down because of the arriving oil slick.
The spill happened last week when a Husky Energy Inc. pipeline leaked an estimated 200,000 to 250,000 litres of crude into the river near Maidstone.
Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall was expected Wednesday to comment on the leak.
Husky said Tuesday it knew something might be wrong with one of its pipelines last Wednesday, about 14 hours before it told the Saskatchewan government about it.
The company said crews initially didn't find the leak, but put its emergency response plan into effect when a sheen was spotted on the river the next day.
