Motor Vehicle Incident Dease Lake
Last updated on June 20, 2025Disclaimer:
- Information provided is based on reports received by Emergency Management and Climate Readiness (EMCR)
- Information provided is considered to be current at the time of posting, but is subject to change
Incident description
| Incident Date | June 5, 2025 |
|---|---|
| Name | DGIR: 252219 |
| Source | MVI |
| Nearest Community | Dease Lake, B.C. |
| Spilled Content | Diesel |
| Who is involved |
MFP Resources, Ministry of Environment and Parks (ENV), Ministry of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness (EMCR), Ministry of Transportation and Transit (MOTT), Health Emergency Management BC (HEMBC), Tahltan First Nation, EFI Global, Northern Environmental Services, KPI Northern, CANUTEC, Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) |
Response phase details
The responsible person or spiller is legally required to cleanup or manage the cleanup of a spill.
In incidents where the responsible person is unknown, unable or unwilling to manage the cleanup, the Ministry of Environment and Parks (ENV) may assume the role.
The updates below reflect the ministry’s oversight of the spillers’ actions. Details describe the spill response phase only and not the complete lifecycle of the spill. Visit the 'More information' page for other reports.
Updates are in reverse chronological order with the most recent at the top.
Industry-specific language may be explained in the Glossary of Terms (PDF, 106KB).
Most recent updates
June 18 and 19, 2025
The Responsible Person’s (RP’s) Qualified Professional (QP) continued the assessment and remediation of the impacts from the spill.
Approximately 1,266 metric tons of contaminated soil and rock were taken offsite to be safely disposed of. This total includes the amounts reported in earlier updates.
A hydrovac truck continued working to remove small amounts of free product. The hydrovac truck collected approximately 30 liters of free product.
The QP continued drilling in the ditch and nearby areas on the west side of the highway. The drilling was done to help determine the extent of the impacted environment. As part of this work, two out of three planned groundwater monitoring wells were installed.
A Tahltan Nation aerial surveillance specialist flew over the area to observe the ongoing operations.
An ENV Response Officer continued to monitor remediation efforts.
This incident has now stabilized. ENV will continue to monitor remediation efforts.
No further updates are anticipated.
June 16 and 17, 2025
The Responsible Person’s (RPs) Qualified Professional (QP) continued the assessment and remediation of the impacts from the spill.
Approximately 867 metric tons of contaminated soil were taken to an appropriate waste facility in the Yukon. The total amount is inclusive of the amounts reported in earlier updates.
Some contaminated soil remains stockpiled at the incident site, ready to be transported to the waste facility.
The stockpiles continue to be covered overnight with liner and poly, to prevent the product from spreading because light rain was expected.
Response contractor dug test holes on the east side of the incident site, where they saw stains from the spill that went approximately 2 meters deep.
A hydrovac operator was onsite to recover free product.
Along about 30 meters of the east ditch, a special treatment was used to clean up fuel that was difficult to recover in the bedrock.
The sampling results that were taken from Halfmoon Creek on June 6 showed no signs of fuel in the water.
The Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure (MoTT) gave permission to check under the road for impacts.
A ENV Response Officer continued to monitor remediation efforts.
Further updates will be provided once more information becomes available.
June 14 and 15, 2025
Over the weekend the Responsible Person’s (RPs) Qualified Professional (QP) was on site working over the weekend.
The QP was able to continue excavations of the impacted environment. The QP has now removed and transported an estimated 539 metric tons of contaminated soil the waste facility. The total amount is inclusive of amounts reported in earlier updates.
Over the evenings, the stockpiles were covered with liner and poly for overnight storage, due to forecasted light precipitation, to prevent remobilization of product in the contaminated soils.
A hydrovac operator was on site to recover free product. Less than 500 liters (L) of free phase product was recovered from the pooled areas. The hole in which free product was pooling was backfilled once hydrovac operations were completed.
The QP sampled at 24 different points were collected for field screening, and 12 samples were collected for laboratory analysis. The laboratory analysis will be able to show the remaining impacts to the surrounding environment.
Surface water samples were collected from both upstream and downstream of the culvert for Halfmoon Creek.
ENV will continue to monitor remediation efforts going forward.
Further updates will be provided once more information becomes available.
Photo Credit: Henry Dyck, Locked in Aerial Services
June 13, 2025
ENV Response Officers (ROs) were on-site yesterday overseeing remediation efforts.
Responsible Person's (RP) Qualified Professional (QP) has removed 216 metric tons of contaminated soil. 143 metric tons of the contaminated soil were transported to a waste facility. The remaining contaminated soil will be removed from site.
The QP completed mitigative measures to prevent product moving due to forecasted precipitation.
Investigative work continues to assess the extent of product flow. Groundwater monitoring wells are anticipated to be installation at a later date.
Tahltan’s aerial surveillance specialist were on-site to monitor operations.
The situation is stable. The incident is transitioning from emergency response to recovery.
The next update will be provided on Monday June 16th.
June 11, 2025
The Responsible Person's (RP) Qualified Professional (QP) has begun remediation and recovery operations.
ENV Response Officers (ROs) were on site to monitor and assess the progress of the operations.
The Tahltan aerial surveillance specialist was on-site to observe operations as well.
The QP identified 135 cubic meters of high-risk contaminated soil. That soil was excavated and placed in a container for transportation. The soil will be transported to an approved waste facility near Watson Lake, Yukon.
The QP conducted more soil and water sampling to support further remediation and recovery operations.
Highway 37 continues to remain open during all ongoing remediation and recovery operations.
Further updates will be provided once more information becomes available.
June 10, 2025
The Responsible Person's (RP) Qualified Professional (QP) has taken soil sampling to assess the impacts to the environment.
The QP is also sending specialised equipment to begin subsurface investigations of the impacted area. The goal is to determine if the spilled product has migrated through the subsurface terrain, and to determine the amount of product that needs to be removed.
The RP successfully completed salvage operations today with the semi-tractor and debris being removed from the incident site.
ENV Response Officers (ROs) attended the incident site today and continued to monitor the operations of the RP.
ENV ROs were also able to meet with Tahltan representatives and the Tahltan aerial surveillance specialist was on site as well.
Further updates will be provided once more information becomes available.
Photo Credit: Henry Dyck, Locked in Aerial Services
June 9, 2025
The ENV Response Officers (ROs) were on scene today. They met with the Responsible Person's (RP) Qualified Professional (QP) to assess the environmental impacts from the spill incident. The ROs and the QP also discussed a plan to remediate and recover the incident site.
The ENV ROs also engaged with the Ministry of Transportation and Transit to provide an update on the impacts to the road and surrounding infrastructure.
The RP continued salvage operations of the semi-tractor and associated debris. ENV ROs continue to monitor and assess the operations.
Highway 37 reopened to two lane traffic with a reduced speed zone near the incident site.
Further updates will be provided once more information becomes available.
June 8, 2025
Two ENV Response Officers (ROs) were on scene today. The Tahltan’s aerial surveillance specialist was also on scene for the day.
Salvage operations continued throughout the day. Both impacted fuel tankers and debris were removed from site and the semi tractor unit is expected to be removed tomorrow. Highway 37 was reduced to single lane alternating traffic during salvage operations.
No observations of product were noted by the ENV ROs and aerial surveillance specialist in or around Halfmoon Creek or Dease Lake.
The Responsible Person has retained a Qualified Professional (QP) for environmental assessment and cleanup.
Further updates will be provided once more information becomes available.
June 7, 2025
Two ENV Response Officers (ROs) arrived on scene today. They met with Tahltan representatives on site. Tahltan have retained an aerial surveillance specialist that deployed a drone to support the assessment of the area. No observations of product were noted by the ENV ROs and aerial surveillance specialist in or around Halfmoon Creek or Dease Lake.
A specialized offloading crew had been retained from Edmonton and arrived on scene late afternoon. By late evening, the crew had successfully offloaded remaining product in the impacted fuel tankers (approximately 25,000 L). Both ENV ROs and the Tahltan’s aerial surveillance specialist were on site to observe transfer operations. Highway 37 was reduced to single lane alternating traffic during transfer operations.
Further updates will be provided once more information becomes available.
Photo Credit: Henry Dyck, Locked in Aerial Services
June 6, 2025
The response contractors were able to make it to the incident site late last night and and were able to:
- patch the leaking tank
- deploy soil booms and spill pads to clean up the spilled product.
Additional response crews are still travelling to the incident site. They will support the transfer and removal of the remaining fuel from the damaged pup trailer.
Highway 37 has been opened to single lane and alternating traffic.
Two ENV Response Officers arrived on-site today to monitor the activities of the response contractors. ENV has also clearly communicated the obligations for spill response and recovery to the Responsible Persons in writing.
ENV continues to share regular updates on this incident with First Nations and other partners.
Further updates will made once more information is available.
June 5, 2025
On June 5th, 2025, the Ministry of Environment and Parks (ENV) received a report of a motor vehicle incident (MVI) on Highway 37.
The truck exited the highway on the east side Dease Lake, north of the Dease Lake community. The initial information received by ENV indicates that MFP Resources are the owner of the transport truck.
At this time, no injuries have been reported or associated to this incident.
MFP have mobilized a response contractor to attend the incident site and they are expected to undertake an initial assessment tonight.
Initial indications are that the pup has released it’s contents of approximately 23,000L of Jet A fuel. The second tank, carrying approximately 25,000L, is slowly leaking Jet A fuel. It is to be determined if waterways are impacted from this release.
Two ENV Response Officers are enroute and are expected to be onsite early afternoon on June 6th.
Further updates will made once more information is available.
Photo Credit: Henry Dyck, Locked in Aerial Services
