Oil ran out of drainage tile around Gina Dolinsky's home and into the Gorge Waterway earlier this year, leaving her with thousands of dollars in cleanup and investigation bills.
But Dolinsky has never had an oil leak in or around her house and every test has shown her oil tank and pipes are intact
"Now I am at a stalemate. I am a single parent and I can't afford the thousands of dollars to clean this up," she said.
The immediate suspicion focused on a nearby Adelaide Avenue house where a driver misdelivered more than 300 litres of home heating oil to a disconnected oil tank.
That house had to be demolished and the oil delivery company's insurer is picking up the $750,000 bill for cleanup, demolition and rebuilding.
Dolinsky, seven doors down, is not so lucky. Her insurance company does not cover spills and the oil delivery company's insurer will not accept a claim, saying there is no proof of where the oil came from.
Calls to Saanich municipal hall and the Environment Ministry produced the same answer.
"They said go and get a lawyer because I can't do anything unless I know the source. It's up to individual homeowners to track it down and do the investigation," she said.
The problem started days after the spill at the nearby house when Dolin-sky smelled oil in her basement.
"I called the furnace people and they couldn't find anything," she said.
"A couple of weeks later oil was flowing out of my drainage tile into the Gorge Waterway. Suddenly, the police and all these vehicles were in front of my house and my furnace was shut off for three days in March while they investigated."
Wittich Environmental Services dug up two corners of the property, and started testing neighbouring properties, to see if there was a leaking under-ground tank, but most neighbours were not willing to foot the investigation bill.
Cases where there is no proof of the oil source are a problem, said Douglas Wit-tich, president of Wittich Environmental Services.
"Usually, you can follow it through the soil from property to property, but, at this particular site, there's bedrock," said Wittich, who believes the oil came through rock fractures and a rock valley leading from the oil leak house.
But the oil delivery company's insurers are not ready to accept that, meaning Dolinsky is on the hook for between $8,000 and $20,000 for investigation and cleanup.
There are also ramifications if Dolinsky tries to sell the house as she will have to disclose the problem. Banks will be reluctant to approve a mortgage and the value of the property will drop, Wit-tich said.
"It's just awful. There's no way for her to recover," he said.
Ben Bowker, Saanich storm and waste water manager, said staff sealed off Dolinsky's drain when oil started flowing into the Gorge.
"Everyone's trying to find the source, but we just don't know. It's very difficult to trace underground migration. That's the tragedy with these oil tanks," he said.
"It's a very difficult process to find the signature of the oil and link it to another source and see if the two match," he said.
