MOUNTAIN VIEW COUNTY - County council has been given an update on the programs and activities of the Sundre Petroleum Operators Group (SPOG), including plans to increase in-person public consultations post-COVID.
SPOG is a collection of oil and gas companies with operations in the district. It includes associate members such as area municipalities including Mountain View County and community groups.
Executive director Tracey McCrimmon appeared as a delegation before council on Feb. 23.
“We are really excited about restrictions being lifted,” said McCrimmon, who has been with SPOG for more than 20 years. “It’s been a long journey for SPOG over the last couple of years as far as our engagement.
“We have had the opportunity of course to stay engaged with our industry members for the most part, and with our government and municipal members. But we’ve really not had opportunities to engage with our community members and we are certainly missing that.”
The resident visitor program has already started to move away from telephone contacts to more in-person visits, she said.
“It’s been tough as far as engaging and dealing in,” she said.
Once restrictions are lifted the plan is also to re-engage with residents through community affairs meetings, she said.
McCrimmon outlined some of the new pilot projects and other initiatives that are now underway in the SPOG area. For example, the methane emissions pilot project started in 2020 is ongoing within the SPOG region, she said.
“We are able to receive a $3 million grant from (Alberta Environment and Parks) to move forward with the regional concept and try to get an inventory snapshot of what our emissions look like in this area,” she said. “We are working collaboratively with our industry members and then from seeing how we can start to move the needle to reduce emissions.”
Part of the pilot is to test new technologies, including in truck-based aerials and fixed monitoring stations.
“One of that things I am really pleased with the outcome is regionally we are looked to be the centre of excellence for methane testing, so new technologies will come to this region,” she said.
“They will come to this area to be tested and get support until they are commercially viable to become an entity to be used and recognized by the regulator.”
The one-year pilot has been moved to a three-year program “to continue on the monitoring phase,” she said.
SPOG has recently partnered with Carbon Management Canada on the Alberta Methane Emissions Management Program, she said.
Work is also underway on a regional emergency management pilot involving area municipalities and others, she said.
That pilot will look at stakeholders utilizing the same resources and the same training, so “everybody can be trained up to the same playing field and we can provide resources, not only to oil and gas incidents but also with regional incidents where we can provide the same level of support.”
Coun. Jennifer Lutz asked where Mountain View County will fit in with the regional emergency management pilot.
McCrimmon said, “From a regional standpoint we are hoping everybody sees the benefit of creating a regional team that has the expectation that training will be at a certain level and everybody is coming from a coordinated response.
“When it comes to an oil and gas incident, all of the first responders here will have the same level of training that oil and gas folks do, and that when it comes to any kind of municipal incidents, oil and gas members can provide the same support and have the same level of training. Hopefully it will get rid of a whole bunch of redundancies.”
Planning for SPOG’s Neighbour’s Day 2022 is underway, she said.
Council accepted McCrimmon’s report as information.
SPOG officials will be meeting with other municipal councils in the coming days to provide updates on plans and programs, she said.
