At Nova Scotia Power, we track any incidents occurring in our daily business that could have an impact on the environment. We record this information in our incident tracking and ranking system. We also use this system to track safety-related issues.
We place incidents into four categories. In three of these categories, something actually happens, and it is ranked as minor, moderate or significant, depending on what takes place. The fourth category deals with ‘close calls’. We track incidents to identify risks, gaps or weakness in our Environmental Management System, to learn from problems and to adjust our actions to prevent any recurrences.
The top two levels of incidents are reported to our Leadership Team and Board of Directors every quarter. All incidents are reported on an annual basis. We track incidents to see if we can learn from them. We also use our tracking system as a mechanism to show things that may not be serious, but which represent trends that we can address before any problems arise.
These top two levels of incidents are also reported to government and action is taken to clean up, when required, and prevent a recurrence. All incidents that do occur are rectified and action is taken to prevent the same thing from happening again.
Nova Scotia Power had 18 moderate environmental incidents and one significant environmental incident in 2009.
Ten moderate incidents took place in our Customer Operations division. Eight of these incidents were associated with oil releases. Two moderate incidents were the result of contractors crossing watercourses incorrectly. A number of minor and high potential incidents were also identified. These tended to be related to small leaks from electrical equipment or the identification of the potential for leaks due to condition of equipment. There were more ‘close call’ incidents because staff members are placing a greater focus on reporting potential environmental issues.
Nova Scotia Power’s Power Production division reported one significant incident and one moderate event associated with stack emissions of ash at Trenton Generating Station. Six other moderate incidents took place in Power Production, two of which were associated with releases of sulfuric acid and hydrogen from thermal generating stations and three events involved releases of oil into watercourses. One moderate incident was related to excess levels of SO2 detected by air monitoring equipment.
There was also one moderate event associated with a small release of oil to water during construction activities.