Alberta Surface Rights Group (ASRG) officials have asked Mountain View County to do what it can to address public concerns related to oil and gas development in the region.
During the July 3 regularly scheduled policies and priorities committee meeting, ASRG members Rob Schwartz and Don Bester told council the municipality can have a role in addressing noise, environmental and other impacts.
The Central Alberta-based ASRG promotes awareness of oil and gas issues and concerns.
Schwartz said increased oil and gas development, including increased hydraulic fracturing (also known as fracking), has created many concerns for residents in the county.
There is growing public concern about oilfield traffic creating unacceptable levels of noise for residents near development sites, he said.
“The noise creates quality of life issues,” said Schwartz.
Flaring (burning off of natural gas from oil well sites) in the region is causing lasting environmental damage, he said.
“We are getting a lot of carcinogens from this flaring. Obviously the better option would be find a market for that gas, rather than what we are allowing to be done now,” he said.
Oilfield companies are currently allowed to use water in their operations without having to get permission from the municipalities where the water is taken from, he said.
The water used in operations such as hydraulic fracking is either lost or is left highly toxic, he said.
He also voiced concerns for what he says is a lack of proper reclamation of older well sites in the district.
“These are big impacts,” he said. “You (MVC) certainly have potential for developing bylaws to address some of the impacts in your jurisdiction. We hope you can see fit to bring in bylaws to control these impacts.”
MVC councillor Kevin Good told Schwartz that the county is already “well aware” of road, water and noise issues in the county caused by oil and gas activities.
“We have taken measures already to deal with the road use damage,” said Good.
In response, Schultz said, “I would like to say that this county has been much more proactive in dealing with these issues than most counties. Our concern is that we are seeing the start of the big push towards shale development and when it gets here we'd like to see you prepared for it rather than dealing with it after the fact.
“Once these wells are in they are going to get grandfathered and the process is going to be grandfathered and you're going to run into more complaints if the rule changes after the fact.”
ASRG president Don Bester told council that the municipality could be faced with liability concerns as a result of current drilling in the area.
“I have a concern about the county's liability in the event that some of these horizontal wells are drilled into some of these old sour gas wells in the county,” said Bester.
“If you blow an 80 per cent sour gas well out, what is the county's liability? It's not just the companies that are going to be sued if a family gets wiped out; it's gong to be everyone who has signatures on the documents.
“I know if it was my family, and I lost family members, I would be going after the company, the ERCB, the government and possibility the county.”
There are many abandoned sour gas wells drilled in the district in the 1940s and 1950s that aren't on ERCB records, he said.
“It's fine for the county to issue an approval for a development, but you don't know where these wells are,” he said. “They were drilled and then they were abandoned.
“I'd like to see the counties remove themselves from that liability. If I build a home and somebody fracks a mile and a half away and that blows that (abandoned) well up and takes out a family, who is going to liable?”
MVC council accepted the ASRG presentation for information.
