MOUNTAIN VIEW COUNTY - County council has carried a motion approving a resolution that calls on the provincial government to prioritize residential and agricultural water use over oil and gas industry water use in fracking operations.
The approval came during the July 10 council meeting, held in person in the Town of Olds council chambers and online.
The Mountain View County (MVC) resolution will go before the fall Rural Municipalities of Alberta (RMA) conference. The association represents 69 rural municipalities, including Mountain View and Red Deer counties.
The three-page resolution also calls on the provincial government to “prioritize finding alternatives to the use of fresh water for fracking and that if drought restrictions are implemented the fracking industry will reduce water use proportionally to all other users.”
It also calls on the government to “realign the designation and transfer of responsibility regulation to ensure that all authority for granting water licences falls under Alberta Environment and Protection Areas responsibility and that the Alberta Energy Regulator continue to be responsible for compliance of the industry.”
It also calls on the government to “require all temporary diversion licence applications, including those diversions from alluvial aquifers, follow the process outlined in legislation, policy and directives and that information on which the approving authority has used to issue the licences be made available to the public.”
In a background note accompanying the resolution, the county said, “We have requested on many occasions how fresh water currently being utilized in oil and gas operations will fit into the drought mitigation plans at a provincial level.
“It appears that the current requirements that would curtail freshwater usage for fracking may not meet the moral obligations that most Albertans have regarding the hierarchy of how fresh water should be allocated.
“We encourage the government to implement clear triggers for reduction of freshwater usage for oil and gas operations in their drought mitigation plans so that Albertans can feel confident that we struck a balance between industry use and residential and agricultural needs.”
During the July 10 meeting, Coun. Peggy Johnson said, “I fully support this resolution.”
Council carried a motion approving the resolution. Council also instructed administration to forward the resolution to Clearwater County for any comment and to ask that municipality to second the resolution.
The resolution itself will now go to RMA resolution committee on Sept. 6 before coming before the annual RMA convention.
Coun. Gord Krebs was not in attendance for the July 10 vote.
