Irving Oil, Grant Enterprises plead guilty to environment charges over N.B. diesel spill next to Tim Hortons

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Irving Oil Ltd. and Grant Enterprises 1984 Ltd. have pleaded guilty in provincial court to charges under the Clean Environment Act due to a 200,000-plus-litre diesel spill in…

Irving Oil Ltd. and Grant Enterprises 1984 Ltd. have pleaded guilty in provincial court to charges under the Clean Environment Act related to a massive diesel spill in Woodstock.

The spill was discovered in December 2024 after a Tim Hortons on Beardsley Road reported its water was contaminated with fuel. The Tim Hortons is next to Murray's Irving gas station and restaurant.

In Woodstock court on Tuesday, it was revealed that the total spill was between 210,000 and 250,000 litres over four months, which is more than previous estimates.

Irving Oil and Grant Enterprises were originally charged with two counts. The charge of failing to immediately report the leak was dropped. The companies pleaded guilty to a charge of releasing a contaminant into the environment.

Crown prosecutor Patrick Wilbur read an agreed statement of facts that said the leak stemmed from a faulty elbow fitting that fed diesel into a 100,000 litre storage tank.

Grant Enterprises had the tank and fill pipe installed in 2014. One of the fittings on that pipe was made of aluminum when it should have been steel or fiberglass.

“Aluminum alloy elbows were never approved nor permitted, and aluminum … should not be part of an underground petroleum system,” Wilbur read.

A faulty aluminum elbow pipe leading to an underground diesel storage tank was found to be responsible for the leak. (Province of New Brunswick)

The cleanup began after inspectors detected the leak along the nearby Trans-Canada Highway.

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