An estimated 150 litres of fuel entered the storm drain system at Amica Jubilee House on Richmond Road near Fort Street, then flowed into the creek.
A retirement home in Victoria’s Jubilee neighbourhood is suspected to be the source of the fuel leak that has fouled a creek that flows through three capital region municipalities.
The City of Victoria said Friday that an estimated 150 litres of fuel had entered the storm-drain system from a private property at 1900 Richmond Rd., near Fort Street, the location of Amica Jubilee House.
Those storm drains empty into Bowker Creek.
Liam Brown, general manager of Amica Jubilee House, said building staff noticed a leak in a diesel storage tank that supplies the building’s generators during a routine safety walk-through on Tuesday morning.
“Our concierge noticed a puddle of diesel fuel on our sixth-floor roof,” said Brown, adding there is no confirmed cause for the leak, which is still under investigation.
The situation is being closely monitored, and there has not been any additional leakage, he said.
The entry point of the fuel through the drain system was in a long portion of Bowker Creek that goes underground north of Royal Jubilee Hospital and then returns to the surface at the Oak Bay border at Bee Street.
That’s where the fuel sheen and strong odour turned up last Tuesday, sparking concerns among neighbours and municipal officials who rushed to clean up the creek and find the source of the fuel.
Oak Bay public works crews have been trying to collect as much of the fuel as possible by laying out absorbent booms and pads at various points along the waterway and using a vacuum truck to skim the surface.
Brown said Amica Jubilee House followed its own safety and environmental procedures and informed authorities. The company also brought in emergency-management specialists who immediately cleaned the fuel from the storm drain on the roof.
He said the initial assessment determined that the 125-suite building — which opened in December 2023 — was safe and no evacuation of residents was required.
Brown said Amica is awaiting the results of a full environmental assessment.
“We are taking this issue very seriously,” Brown said late Friday afternoon, adding he has not yet spoken to the city about the issue.
Regardless of whether Amica’s leak was responsible for the oil slick in the creek, the company will co-operate with the cleanup effort, said Brown.
“I am a lifelong resident of Oak Bay. I care deeply about the health of our local waterways, wildlife, and neighbours, and I’m proud to work with Amica, which shares my commitment to this community and our environment.”
By Thursday, the fuel had reached the lower portions of the creek where it empties into the ocean at Oak Bay Marina, and where conservationists have been painstakingly restoring the area for the first returns of chum salmon in more than a century.
Bowker Creek is an eight-kilometre-long urban waterway that begins in springs and underground gravel beds that collect winter rains at the University of Victoria and flows through Saanich, Victoria and Oak Bay. About 60% of the creek flows through large underground culverts, but small stretches through each municipality flow on the surface.
Gerald Harris, a director with the Friends of Bowker Creek, called the spill the worst he’s seen since he started volunteering for the group in 2007.
Sacha Veelbehr, an Oak Bay resident who first noticed a rainbow-like sheen on the water on Tuesday evening, has been walking along the open portions of the creek since the spill was first discovered.
She hadn’t noticed anything on the ocean beaches on Friday, but said the odour is strong and the sheen on the water is visible at Monteith Street, although it improves moving north to the Victoria border.
Veelbehr said she saw an otter swimming through the water at the bridge near Oak Bay High School on Friday.
A City of Victoria spokesperson said crews are now focused on cleaning the affected underground pipes around the property on Richmond Road and supporting cleanup efforts in portions of the creek inside Oak Bay.
The spokesperson said the property owners are co-operating with all authorities and taking steps to remediate the spill.
The District of Oak Bay said Friday its public works department will be monitoring the booms and pads in Bowker Creek all weekend, replacing them when necessary.
TheTimes Colonistreached out to the Ministry of Environment, but did not immediately hear back.
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