Cleanup underway after oily spill in waters near Nanaimo, B.C.

Marine traffic travels on the waters of the Strait of Georgia near Nanaimo, B.C., during a National Aerial Surveillance Program flight on Wednesday Feb. 19, 2014. (Darryl Dyck / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

Jackie Wasyluk says she walks along the shores of Cable Bay near Nanaimo, B.C., almost every day, and was shocked when she visited Tuesday after hearing of a spill.

“I went to the shore, and there was a significant diesel smell at the shore,” she said. “There was no sheen on the water, so I touched the rock, and that is where I got the oily film on my hand. Then I took out a clean issue and wiped the rock with that, and that is when it became covered in what appears to be diesel.”

The B.C. Environment and Parks Ministry said Thursday it is investigating an oily spill that involved hundreds of litres of an unidentified substance.

The province said investigators identified the source of the spill as a commercial environmental waste operation, where the material flowed through a culvert in Nanaimo into the ocean.

The ministry says in an email that the B.C. government was notified Monday of the oil sheen in the waters between Duke Point and Mudge Island, just south of Nanaimo.

A flyover by Transport Canada’s National Aerial Surveillance aircraft then reported that the sheen measures between 350 and 1,600 litres.

Booms have been set up to stem the outflow, and the province says no additional material has been found outside of the containment area since.

The cleanup process is underway, and the ministry said it will continue to monitor the situation, with additional sampling of the substance scheduled.

Wasyluk said she hopes that the area will be cleaned up, if it is not too late.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 8, 2025.