Albertans will notice better air quality around aging sour-gas processing plants starting next year as the facilities are either cleaned up or phased out, industry and environmentalists say.

Nearly 60 so-called “grandfathered” sour-gas plants still operating in the province will have to comply with tougher rules on sulphur emissions or be shut down by the end of 2016, the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board (EUB) and Alberta Environment have decided.

Under a de-grandfathering plan announced by the regulators, the plants also have to reduce their emissions annually starting in January 2002.

“Emissions start dropping at (a minimum) 7.5 per cent a year from all the plants,” and will continue for the life of the plan, said David Pryce, manager of environment and operations at the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers.

The plants now emit 221 tonnes of sulphur a day, which would be cut by 91 tonnes daily if all the facilities were upgraded to more stringent emission standards that apply to new gas plants.

The EUB exempted the old plants from tougher standards in 1988, because many appeared to be near the end of their lifespan. Most have continued operating, however, thanks to new gas discoveries and technology.

Grandfathered plants are among some of Alberta’s largest sour-gas facilities, including Shell Canada’s Waterton complex near Pincher Creek in southwest Alberta and Husky Energy’s Ram River plant near Rocky Mountain House.

Martha Kostuch, an environmentalist and veterinarian in Rocky Mountain House, said the de-grandfathering plan “is certainly going to mean better air quality, less air pollution in Alberta.”

Companies that act within five years to reduce emissions can forgo paying some of the provincial royalties on the gas.

The credit can be applied to cover 50 per cent of the capital cost of installing new pollution-control equipment, on a first-come, first-serve basis.

The total cost to upgrade all remaining grandfathered plants is estimated to be as high as $400 million, Pryce said.

The province expects the total royalty credit available over five years to be about $50 million.

Some companies, especially those with declining gas fields, will elect to phase out their plants rather than upgrade them, Pryce said.

Kostuch, a member of a multi-stakeholder committee that advised the province on the issue, supported giving companies a royalty credit. “That encourages the companies to take very early action,” she said.

Companies that act early also will be able to bank pollution-reduction credits, which can be used in the future if more gas is brought onstream. The de-grandfathering plan also emphasizes restrictions against building new gas-processing plants, in favour of utilizing existing facilities.

“It means we shouldn’t have more unnecessary gas plants built,” Kostuch said.

But Edmontonian Phillip Hannemann, who has battled Petro-Canada to clean up emissions from its grandfathered Wilson Creek sour-gas plant near his rural acreage, says taxpayers shouldn’t have to pay half the bill to clean up pollution by petroleum companies earning record revenues.

“This is how in Alberta the polluters write the environmental regulations,” Hannemann complained.

Eoin Kenny, a spokesman for Alberta Energy, says the royalty credit is a five-year extension of a program that companies have tapped since 1988 to upgrade pollution control at gas plants.

“We’re getting a cleaner environment as a result of that,” Kenny said, adding the credit program definitely won’t be extended again.