KINDER MORGAN WATCH

Darcy Wintonyk, ctvbc.ca

A major oil spill at a Kinder Morgan terminal in Burnaby, B.C., has now been contained.

Fire and hazmat teams were called to the Burnaby Mountain facility after a contractor discovered a leak of almost 200,000 litres of crude oil seeping from one of the tanks around 10 p.m. Wednesday.

Company spokesperson Andrew Galarnyk told ctvbc.ca roughly 200 cubic metres -- about the equivalent of 1,200 barrels -- leaked from the container but has been completely contained by a tank liner.

"No product has leaked out of the dike or offsite and the dike has done its job," he said.

None of the oil spilled into the surrounding residential area or nearby Burrard Inlet.

Witnesses still report a strong smell of gas in the air, but Galarnyk says it is only a so-called "nuisance odour" and is not dangerous.

Emergency responders have covered the oil in foam to prevent it from spreading and three types of air monitoring are underway to deal with the resulting odours. Vacuum trucks are picking up any oil outside the liner.

Environment Canada has visited the facility and is assessing the potential environmental damage.

The cause of the leak is still under investigation. Kinder Morgan reports that contractors were working close to the area before the spill.

More than 230 cubic metres of oil erupted from a Kinder Morgan pipeline in the same area after a line was ruptured by a construction crew working in the municipality in July 2007, covering houses and seeping into nearby Burrard Inlet.

In March, the Transportation Safety Board ruled the accident was the fault of the company, not the city, because it was responsible for making sure the excavation crew knew exactly where the pipeline was before they were allowed to start digging.

There are still 26 outstanding lawsuits as a result of the accident, many of them from homeowners who had to be relocated for months while their homes were cleaned up.

Kinder Morgan is one of the largest pipeline and energy storage companies in North America, with more than 35,000 miles of oil pipelines. The company transports, stores and handles energy products including natural gas, refined petroleum, crude oil and ethanol.