A spill of road sealant material has leaked into the storm sewer system entering the river at 33rd Street and Spadina Crescent in Saskatoon.

Saskatoon's Environmental Services Manager Brenda Wallace says it is a heavier, more globular material whose properties change as it cools or warms up. They are concentrating on finding and cleaning up these chunks.

She says it does stay in chunks so a lot of the material is right below the outfall itself, on the rocks and on the river banks.  She points out it's not water soluble so it's not like an oil slick where you'd see plants and wildlife suffocated. Wallace says they wouldn't likely send divers to help clean up because the water is so murky with run-off that they probably wouldn't be able to see anything anyway.

Wallace says they can backtrack through the sewer system till they don't find anymore material which will allow them to pinpoint the storm drain where the material entered the system.  She points out there is a cost associated to the response which the perpetrator would have to ante up.  Any charges lobbied would have to be through Saskatchewan Environment.  There was a similar spill earlier this spring, not from the City of Saskatoon, although Wallace said she did not have the information at hand as to who caused that spill. 

Saskatchewan Environment and the City of Saskatoon were on site around 5:30 yesterday evening while Saskatoon Fire and Protective Services were called in around 11 o'clock.

They worked through the night on containment of the spill.  Saskatoon Fire Battalion Chief Glenn Ledray says oil booms were already set up when they arrived and they put in additional screens on the river to catch "the bigger chunks".