Re: Concerns raised with water diversion for fracking in Mountain View County
I cannot express the emotions that run through this community (McDougal Flats, west of Sundre) after Mountain View County (MVC) has been involved once again with another account of deniability about concerns raised with water diversion for fracking in a gravel pit pond on Range Road 61near Highway 584.
This pond has grown to three times its size in the past few years when an agreement was struck that gravel was not to be taken from the water table. The excavation goes down about 26 feet using the greasy boom/shovel components of a backhoe.
MVC takes no responsibility for these actions passing the buck to the Alberta Environment and Protected Areas when initially MVC is involved with the land development permit.
After this stage, MVC is accountable but still takes the gravel pit owners' taxes. MVC please confirm these gravel pits pay agricultural taxes?
Now what comes next is Alberta Energy Regulator providing the water divergent licence(s) for fracking oil/gas drilling from this pit. This licence went to three well sites with about 22 kilometres of eight-inch flexible pipe to divert up to 49,000 cubic metres of water at a maximum rate of 0.15 cubic metres per second.
This is millions of gallons of water using the description of a pond, other people refer to these gravel pit water bodies as a lake. Technically these water bodies are alluvial aquifers that flow bidirectionally between the Red Deer River and the Bearberry Creek.
Our concern is that there are about 60-plus shallow wells within one mile radius of this so-called pond. The above info does not take the cumulative impact of the gravel pit due east of the above-mentioned pit on Range Road 61.
Note that MVC can give road and ditch access for this fracking operation, but they do not notify the taxpaying landowner.
MVC please confirm why the landowners around this pit were not notified about this ridiculous fracking operation coming from a privately-owned gravel pit?
Note that we are in a drought and this fracking operation should never have been considered.
When we built our house 27 years ago this area was meant for agriculture and acreages. We had no discussion with the county about gravel pits as part of the future area structure plan at that time.
Since then, the landowners were continually lied to by MVC stating there would be no more gravel pits in this area.
Since then, a new gravel pit has been approved on Range Road 61 near the above-mentioned gravel pit. This pit also includes a pond and three drilled wells. This pit also was professed not to go into the water table.
Due to the ongoing gravel crushing and heavy equipment noise and dust in this area we are concerned about our water, health, and property value.
By adding this water diversion problem and another gravel pit in the south McDougal Flats area, this has added to the destruction of our dreams of a peaceful retirement and destroyed our quality of life.
Since 1968 Alberta’s Municipal Government Act (MGA) legislated municipal councils and administrations responsible for land use planning and development, including bodies of water and adjacent land within their boundaries.
No other legislation uses the same language as Section 60 of the MGA in conferring authority for the “direction, control and management” of bodies of water (environmental sensitive areas), the air space above and the ground below. Alberta’s Public Lands Act and Water Act describes bodies of water and/or environmentally sensitive areas, as all permanent and natural occurring bodies of water, rivers, streams, watercourses, lakes, wetlands, and aquifers.
Decades of ignoring the protection and conservation of water bodies at the earliest stage of land use planning and development pursuant to Section 60 of the MGA and other legislation is a permanent negative impact to Alberta’s water bodies now and for future generations.
Neil Konner,
McDougal Flats
