Concern over what is being transloaded at the terminal just west of Bienfait was brought to the forefront last week.
The facility, run by Watco Terminal and Port Services, an American transport company based out of Pittsburg, Kan., and Canadian National Railway (CN), is prepared to begin transloading sour crude.
The facility has been used to transload sweet crude since February, but The Mercury was contacted by an individual, who wished to remain anonymous, who said given its proximity to Bienfait's Weldon elementary school, sour crude should not be a product that goes through that area.
"When I heard that I thought, 'Wait a second. You guys can't do that, you're only a kilometre away from a school.' That school is too damn close in my opinion."
The caller has 20 years of experience in the oilfield and suggested a safe distance for the facility would be a minimum of three kilometres from the school.
"If anything bleeds out there, it's going to directly impact that school," the person added.
According to the source, something as benign as an improperly closed valve could lead to a leak of hydrogen sulfide gas. The concerns stem from the systems used in the transload process, which they said aren't 100 per cent sealed.
"They can't have a full-sealed unit while top loading," the caller said.
Bottom loading is different, but they added that CN won't allow bottom loading.
Warren Chandler, a media representative for CN, said the company does do all of their loading from the top.
"It's safer to load from the top," he said, noting it's more difficult to load from the bottom.
The caller said the transloading facility is in a good location, outside of Bienfait, but that changed when they started dealing with sour gas, which he called "a different ball game."
When setting up the Bienfait facility for transloading, CN said the site was canvassed for safety concerns and to ensure all guidelines were followed.
"We have to ensure that we meet all Transport Canada safety and operation guidelines," noted Chandler. "We also hired a consultant to look into factors that come into play with the movement of this commodity, and it was deemed to be safe. The priority of our employees and the public is our utmost concern. We do look at that closely."
He said CN deemed the site to be safe, and added they ensure that they "meet all safety guidelines they are beholden to as a federally regulated railroad."
Chandler noted that while they are ready to accept sour crude, the company has yet to transload it.
"We're not currently moving it at this time. It hasn't begun yet," he said, noting that he didn't have a timeline of when the sour crude transloading would start. "It all depends on the customer, right? When the customer is ready, then we'll move it."
Another issue brought up by the individual who contacted The Mercury is the H2S training of workers at the site.
The source noted that he has training via Enform, a safety association for the gas and oil industries that is the oilfield standard in Canada. They noted Watco is a safe company, but said the H2S training they provide their employees, which they have first-hand knowledge of, is below Canadian standards.
"They don't touch on a third of the things the Canadian (program covers). The course material they have, they're omitting three-quarters of the stuff they need to know," the caller said.
They noted Watco's H2S training course is two days done in house with no hands-on training.
"They like to tell stories, and that's it," he said, adding that the book they should be using is nowhere in sight. "What you don't know about H2S is what's going to kill you."
An inquiry to a representative of Watco was redirected to CN, while a call to Bienfait's mayor was not returned as of press time.
