Panel’s message forthright
For a year now, Albertans have kept a watchful eye on the new Alberta Energy Regulator as it was being designed to suit the wishes of the oilpatch. Oil companies wanted faster approvals, onewindow service for water and other permits, and environmental enforcement all at arm’s-length from government.
The uneasy question persisted: How seriously would the industry-funded agency deal with complaints against a company or address pollution issues arising from the industry it regulates?
This week, the public got an encouraging sign in a forthright report from the January public inquiry into the heavy oil emissions that forced seven families off their land near Peace River.
The panel, in thorough and specific recommendations, sent a clear message to all operators in the region: Clean up the smelly emissions from bitumen tanks, trucks, wells and pipes, and do it quickly because they could cause health problems.
Calgary-based Baytex Energy, which operates in the Reno field, was given four months to install pollution-control equipment on top of heated bitumen tanks — a key request of the Labrecque families from the nearby farms.
The panel wants changes across the region where Shell, Murphy, Penn West and Husky also operate.
“Odours caused by heavy oil operation in the Peace River need to be eliminated to the extent possible as they have the potential to cause some of the health symptoms of area residents,” says the report.
“Operational changes must be implemented in the area to eliminate venting, reduce flaring and ultimately to conserve all produced gas where feasible.”
The Labrecques and others who joined the battle to clean up the pollution deserve a tribute in this sad story. They were never anti-industry; they just wanted a bad operation to get fixed.
In a small community, it isn’t easy to stand up to an oil company or to rock the boat when the bitumen boom is just taking off.
It took far too long to get serious attention to this issue. But finally, to his credit, former energy minister Ken Hughes took action.
The lessons from this inquiry go far beyond Peace River and in many positive ways could change the regulator’s approach to Alberta’s vast resource.
Finally, there is recognition of the need to better regulate the CHOPS method — cold heavy oil production with sand — used in Peace River.
Significantly, the report recognizes you can’t treat all oilsands deposits with the same rules because, well, they aren’t the same. With different geochemistry, deposits produce different pollution levels, so a “localized” approach is necessary. In Peace River, bitumen deposits have higher sulphur levels.
The panel also calls for measures to extend its regulations to include bitumen tank-top emissions. The inquiry revealed how little research is done on this resource we are rushing to extract and process. That especially applies to its impact on human health.
Faced with compelling evidence from ill family members, the panel acknowledged that emissions “have the potential to cause some of the symptoms.” That’s not as definitive as the families would say. But finally there is an official call for more research into this serious and complex issue.
The regulator’s board of directors would be wise to move quickly on the recommendations. Both the AER and the government are busy telling the world Alberta is achieving responsible oilsands development when the plight of Peace River families spoke the opposite. It’s time to fix it, and the report provides a clear path.