First Nation critical of government response to fuel spill on Vancouver Island

A First Nation assisting in the cleanup of last week's jet fuel spill on Highway 4 north of Ucluelet, B.C. is criticizing the Ministry of Environment's response to the incident.

Saya Masso, natural resources manager of Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation, says he was disappointed both in the government's response to the incident and the lack of communication his nation had with the ministry.

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"We were shut down from accessing the site by Ministry of the Environment," he told All Points West host Jason D'Souza. "I have more rights to access that site than anybody else here: that's our traditional territory and I'm here to look at what the impacts are.

"I just needed a supervisor to come over and let me know what the plan is. What type of fuel? What's the response? I had to do all that through email it took a couple of days before we were even in the email loop."

Concerns over the 'feast bowl'

Masso said although spill pads were deployed immediately to the site, it was a rainy day and some oil got into nearby Kennedy Lake.

He believes there was an immediatelyneed for more pads, but that need was not met.

"This road is four feet from the lake's edge," he said. "It's inevitable with that high flow of water that there was some seepage into the lake. There was definitely some fuel that dissipated to the edge of the water."

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Masso says the traditional Tla-o-qui-aht name for Kennedy Lake means "feast bowl," and the lake remains crucial to the nation's supply of salmon. The nation's citizens remain very concerned about the cleanup efforts.

"Every day there are new plans, new information. I'm quite certain it's going to involve removing quite a few truckloads of soil."

Listen to the complete interview withSayaMasso:

Ministry says impacts low

In response, a Ministry of Environment spokesperson said the possibility of long-term environmental impact to Kennedy Lake or the surrounding area is low.

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They say initial assessments indicated the spilled fuel was contained to the highway surface and the reason some people were not allowed near the spill was for safety reasons.

The spokesperson said both Vancouver Island Health Authority and First Nations Health Authority were notified of the incident immediately and a contractor will work on next steps for the cleanupwith government and local First Nations.

With files from CBC Radio One's All Points West