Broken fuel line blamed for Brevoort Island spill

A major fuel spill at the Brevoort Island radar siteearlier this month was caused by a broken fuel line, Nasittuq Corporation spokesman Peter Lundy says.

An estimated 150,000 litres of jet fuel leaked out of a storage tank before it was discovered Jan. 12 by a Nasittuq worker doing routine maintenance, Lundy said in an interview Wednesday.

The unmanned radar site is one of 47North Warning Systemsites the Nasittuq Corporation maintainsfor the Department of National Defence.

"In my time with the North Warning System, which is 15 years now, this is the biggest spill I've been involved in — it's a significant spill," Lundy said.

The fuel pooled under one of the buildings at the site, he said. The clean-up crew is pumping the fuel into drums and putting the contaminated snow into containers.

"Right through the company, right to the president, everybody's involved in this," Lundy said.

"The right resources are being applied to it …. Whatever type of people we need we will bring in. We will do whatever it takes to clean this up."

The company does not know what caused the fuel line to break in the first place, he said.

Brevoort Island is just off the east coast of southern Baffin Island.