A training exercise by a local commercial diving operation led to the discovery of some unusual items on the bottom of the Red River near Selkirk, Man.
Shawn Goertzen of Submerged Underwater Services told Global Winnipeg that a sonar survey in the river led to the discovery of several vehicles sitting on the bottom.
The unexpected find triggered a cleanup/salvage initiative Monday, during which Goertzen and his team pulled the vehicles from the river, primarily out of environmental concerns.
“We’re in a position where we can actually go get it. As far as I’m concerned, we’ve got a moral obligation to go get it, bring it,” he said. “Whoever it belongs to, we’ll deal with it on the surface.
“We’re going to pick everything very methodically and slow. We don’t want to create new damage and create way worse than an environmental hazard than it already is.”
Crews work on extracting cars from the Red River.
Global News
Goertzen said while the salvage operation was getting set up, he saw people fishing nearby, and has concerns about the potential for oil, gas, and other unsafe materials leaking into the Red from the abandoned cars — especially if people are eating the potentially contaminated fish they catch.
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In some cases, especially when it’s in very shallow water and a vehicle is causing a hazard, he said, the salvagers will work with Transport Canada, but in this case, the cars were deep enough at the bottom at the river that it was unlikely anyone else would be going in to get them — or would even be aware they were there in the first place.
Goertzen said his company works with Manitoba Public Insurance as well as police to determine who — if anyone — the cars belong to, and those with no apparent ownership are taken to the scrapyard. One vehicle at the Selkirk scene had papers that link back to MPI, he said.
“While we’re here, we’re going to yank all the others and see what belongs to MPI. Those (other) ones, we will talk with the police, and most likely they’ll just go to a scrapyard. If the police want to contact an owner, they can do that.”
A Winnipeg police spokesperson told Global Winnipeg that the police service has been informed about the discovery of the vehicles, and that they’re not part of any ongoing investigation.
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Salvage operation pulls vehicles from Red River near Selkirk
