| A U.S. organization that has been raising awareness about the coal bed methane (CBM) industry polluting groundwater says Albertans should be concerned about the industry contaminating the province’s water.
OGAP is a non-profit American organization based in Durango, Colorado that aims to protect individuals and communities from potential negative environmental impacts of the oil and gas industry.
CBM is natural gas trapped in coal. The industry is just beginning in Alberta, but has been active in the western U.S. since the 1980s. In order to release natural gas from the coal formation, companies use hydraulic fracturing, which involves injecting chemicals, or fracturing fluids, into the coal formation to crack it open and release the natural gas.
Lisa Sumi, a researcher with OGAP, says oil and gas companies often refuse to disclose what chemicals they’re using for their fracturing fluids, claiming it’s proprietary information that, if disclosed, would compromise the company’s competitiveness.
OGAP has been concerned for years about toxic chemicals from the fracturing fluids contaminating groundwater. There’s also concern that methane can migrate into groundwater when drilling occurs in the coal formation where it’s contained. OGAP regularly hear complaints from people who believe coal bed methane development has contaminated their water.
In Alberta, some landowners who live next to coal bed methane wells have complained that they have so much methane in their water, they can light it on fire.
Sumi says Albertans should push the government to require companies to disclose the chemicals they’re using.
"That’s what we’re pushing for down here and we’ll continue to push for," she says.
Sumi says some of the chemicals used in CBM in the U.S. pose serious risks to human health.
"When you look at a list of some of the types of chemicals that are in (fracturing) fluids, they could be connected with a whole host of illnesses from cancer to kidney to liver to skin problems," she says.
Oscar Steiner, an independent consultant and oil and gas researcher in Alberta, says he’s tried numerous times without success to find out what CBM companies operating in the province are using in fracturing fluids. He agrees that people should have the right to know what’s being injected into wells close to their water supply.
Sumi says it’s also crucial for people to get their water tested before CBM development starts because she says without evidence about what your water was previously like "it’s definitely more difficult to make a case."
The provincial government announced on March 6 that it’s creating a new policy under which water testing would be required before CBM drilling takes place. The government also announced that "over the next several years" Alberta Environment will map groundwater resources across the province to develop an accurate picture of what water resources exist and where.
The provincial government has appointed a multi-stakeholder advisory committee to come up with recommendations on CBM, which has submitted its final report to government, but the government hasn’t yet responded to the report.
The provincial government still doesn’t have specific CBM regulations and is instead regulating the industry in the same way as conventional natural gas. CBM often requires a greater density of wells, so there’s more of a surface impact and there are more concerns about water contamination than with conventional natural gas production.
Steiner says he doesn’t understand why the industry was allowed to proceed before the committee finished its work. He says he’s heard from many concerned landowners across the province who fear their water has already been or may become contaminated.
"We should’ve had a regulatory regime in place for unconventional gas before we allowed one well to be drilled," he says. "Let’s protect the resource that’s actually worth more than oil and gas – and that’s water."
The Alberta Surface Rights Federation, which advocates for landowner rights in the province, has organized a series of provincewide CBM meetings where experts from the U.S. will speak. On March 9, Tweeti Blancett, a landowner from New Mexico who’s experienced CBM firsthand, and Gwen Lachelt, with OGAP, will speak at Mount Royal College from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.
Steiner says he finds it an interesting coincidence that the government has announced that it’s creating a policy on baseline water testing the same week as the provincewide CBM meetings. |
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