Fuel spills on Alaska Highway threaten thinhorn sheep and wildlife in northeastern B.C.

Fuel spills from highway crashes are putting thinhorn sheep and other wildlife at risk in northeastern B.C., according to Tom Fulton, a former oil and gas reclamation consultant who has watched crashes increase in recent years along the Alaska Highway.

Fulton, who has lived in Toad River for nearly 60 years and directs the Northeast BC Wildlife Fund, says his group has been involved in wildlife management in the Fort Nelson area for 30 years. In March, a crash near Summit Pass — a 1,260-metre mountain pass approximately 140 kilometres west of Fort Nelson — killed both truck occupants and released nearly 23,000 kilograms of aircraft de-icer fluid and 500 litres of diesel.

Fulton and colleagues wrote to the Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship days after the crash, warning that "an unknown liquid" would spill into local waterways and attract wild sheep and other animals. They offered to assist with remediation, but officials did not immediately accept. Remediation was initially led by an insurance group on behalf of the company involved.

When wildlife fund members visited the cleanup site, they found downed fencing meant to deter wildlife from accessing the spill, scattered garbage bags, and sheep roaming nearby. Fencing, Fulton's group later wrote in a June letter to the province, was unlikely to deter wildlife — and fuel likely had soaked into the ground.

The fund threatened to conduct remediation itself and bill the province, writing: "We're gonna do it and bill you back." That pressure worked. The government forced the insurance company to return and remediate the site again.

"If we wouldn't have put pressure on them and say 'We're gonna do it and bill you back,' I don't think they'd send anyone back up," Fulton said. He noted that Fulton's group implemented an off-highway salting program to deter sheep from licking salt on roads — part of ongoing efforts to protect wildlife in the region.

Dale Bull, senior emergency response officer with B.C. Ministry of Environment and Parks, told The Tyee that companies responsible for transporting hazardous materials are responsible for cleaning up spills on highways — standard practice in B.C. and across Canada.