Three weeks after a Columbia Fuels tanker truck crashed and spilled
thousands of litres of gasoline and diesel into the Goldstream River,
pools of fuel-polluted water remain at the edge of the famous
salmon-bearing stream.

Experts, who say the smell and sheen on
shoreline pools may linger for months, are mulling over the best way to
return the river to its original state with the least disturbance to the
fish.

“It’s a very delicate place and we are trying to walk that
line,” said Graham Knox, environmental emergencies manager for the B.C.
Environment Ministry.

For now, the people involved in the cleanup
have agreed to continue intensive monitoring and to change absorbent
booms in the river weekly until it is decided whether the cleanup should
be more aggressive.

“If we dig up all the stream bed and cart it
away with big machines and dump trucks, there will be more damage to the
river and it will remove all the micro-organisms. Is that better than
having some product in the river that is continuing to break down?” Knox
asked.

Complicating the cleanup are emerging coho salmon fry
swimming in pools where fuel has soaked into organic material. Coho
remain in the river for a year.

Ian Bruce, Saanich Tribes
fisheries consultant, who worked the river Friday with technicians from
Quantum Murray, the company hired by Columbia Fuels to clean up the
spill, said some areas where hydrocarbons are caught behind booms still
smell strongly enough to cause dizziness.

“And recent surveys have
found gasoline has soaked into sticks and roots, and we want to try and
remove it without dispersing it,” said Bruce, watching as tiny fish
sped to the surface to feed as he tried to remove a fuel-soaked root
ball.

“The textbook on this hasn’t been written yet,” he said.

It
is now assumed most surviving chum have made it to the ocean, but the
level of pollution in the river bed is one element in the cleanup
equation.

“If [returning fish] deposit eggs, is there going to be an effect on the eggs?” Knox said.

“We have to do the most good and the least harm.”

Saanich
Peninsula First Nations, who held a healing ceremony, with offerings to
their ancestors, beside the river Friday afternoon, want to ensure
nothing is done to harm the future viability of the river, which
provides food and ceremonial salmon.

“We need to ensure things are being done to address the long term,” said Tsartlip Chief Wayne Morris.

One positive sign is that test drillings of soil beside the Malahat, where the crash occurred, show low readings, Knox said.

Once
the site is clean and there’s no risk of another plume of fuel moving
towards the water, a certificate of compliance will be issued.

However, Columbia Fuels will remain responsible for all costs.

The company is negotiating directly with First Nations, and other costs are being assessed, Knox said.

Columbia
Fuels is working through about 750 claims from people affected by the
closing of the Malahat for almost 24 hours after the spill.

“They are predominantly for people who had to seek shelter for that night,” said marketing director Andrea Voysey.

“The range is from $100 to $150 on average.”

Some cheques have already gone out, but others are still being assessed.

“We
really are trying to be fair and treat everyone the same. We have only
sent rejection letters if there’s no basis for the claim,” Voysey said.

The driver remains on leave from the company because no charges have been laid, Voysey said.

The
33-year-old driver was released by West Shore RCMP on a promise to
appear in court June 16, where he will face a charge of assaulting a
police officer.

The investigation is continuing, said Const. Julie Chanin, West Shore RCMP spokeswoman.