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WINNIPEG, Manitoba (Reuters)An oil spill from a cargo vessel that ran aground near Montreal has forced the closure of a section of the important St. Lawrence Seaway shipping route until at least Wednesday.
A Canada Steamship Lines vessel ran aground near the Cote Sainte-Catherine canal lock south of Montreal Monday evening. The Montreal Gazette newspaper said the accident punctured the ship's fuel tank, leaking between 50 and 200 tonnes of oil into the surrounding waters.
The South Shore Canal and the lock remained closed to support clean-up efforts around the ship.
"The leak has now been completely contained," the Gazette quoted a spokesman for the St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corp as saying Tuesday.
The vessel was carrying 24,700 tonnes of wheat owned by the Canadian Wheat Board, said a board spokesman.
The incident did not damage the wheat, which the wheat board was shipping from Thunder Bay, Ontario, to Quebec City for storage, he said. The earliest shipping will resume through the closed Seaway section is mid-Wednesday.
The Seaway, owned by the Canadian and U.S. governments, connects central North America via the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean and is a major shipping route for commodities such as iron ore, steel, coal and grain.
The closure was affecting four to five ships, according to media reports.
The Transportation Safety Board of Canada said it is investigating the accident.