"Black Puddles" According to Lameman’s source, the damage was described to her as "black puddles" or "black spots" coming up in different areas. An employee on site confirmed that the tar sands emulsion seeping from the ground is not a pipeline spill. What’s more, industry and government do not even know what the spill is. They also know there’s a lot of oil seeping, and they don’t know what it’s coming from.
Here they don’t seem to know what is spilling or how much is spilling.
CNRL’s Primrose site uses a kind of tar sands extraction called Cyclic Steam Stimulation, or CSS.
According to CNRL’s website CSS is a three stage thermal recovery method where steam is first injected into the well at temperatures over 300°C and pressures of 10-12 Mpa (1450-1740 psi). This heats the bitumen in the reservoir, reducing the viscosity so that it can flow. The steam is then left to ‘soak’ before production begins for several weeks, mobilizing cold bitumen, and then the flow on the injection well is reversed, producing oil through the same injection well bore.