CLEAN UP IDLE WELLS

Alberta’s NDP government has shown it is willing to stand up for the environment and hold to account those whose actions do it harm. It’s earned accolades from nature groups — and fierce defiance from local residents, opposition politicians and recreation groups — for seeking to preserve large swaths of wilderness as parkland. Early in its mandate, it gave officers the ability to issue tickets on the spot for offences on public lands such as littering, dumping sewage or driving through rivers with an off-road vehicle.

So where is this same vigour for environmental protection from the Alberta government and its energy regulator when it comes to the oil and gas industry and thousands of inactive and orphan wells scarring land whose owners typically have no say in the matter?

Unlike many U.S. jurisdictions, Alberta lacks time limits on how long wells can remain inactive. Some have sat dormant for as long as 60 years, rusting away on patches of farmland.

To be fair, it’s been the policy of successive governments to let industry clean up after itself. The Orphan Well Association, funded by levies, takes over responsibility of wells whose owners walk away.

But that system is falling behind. Low commodity prices the past several years have bankrupted more operators while others idled their equipment. Since 2013, the number of orphan wells has ballooned to 3,127 from 74. Across Alberta, there are now nearly 90,000 inactive wells.

Last week’s Supreme Court ruling that trustees for bankrupt energy companies must give priority to clean up old wells helps, but doesn’t address the larger issue.

The province must go where the court leaves off and establish a robust regulatory system to better enforce the principle of polluter pays.

The government says it’s working with industry to come up with long-term solutions.

It’s not that hard; impose strict timelines on how long a well can sit before it must be cleaned up.

To its discredit, Alberta lags behind states such as North Dakota, where wells can remain dormant for only six months before being plugged or put back into production. If plugged, the timeline is 12 months for reclamation.

The proliferation of inactive and orphan wells that now threatens public safety, the environment and the expenditure of tax dollars for cleanup is a problem decades in the making.

The mess has escalated under the NDP government’s watch, but it’s failed so far to make needed reforms. Whoever Albertans elect in the coming election must act.