Alberta’s petroleum and beef cattle industries will together contribute more than $1 million toward completing a major study of oilfield gas flaring, but it’s far short of what’s needed.

As Business Edge reported last week, the $19.3-million study of flaring’s health impacts on beef cattle across Western Canada remains in jeopardy because of a funding shortfall. And a crucial portion of the study that was to investigate flaring’s health effects in people is still on the shelf.

Unless an additional $5 million can be found by March, even parts of the cattle study may have to be abandoned, the study’s leaders say.

The research, announced more than a year ago, was supposed to answer the 30-year-old question of whether flaring is causing widespread health problems in Alberta and across Western Canada.

“This is a world-class study. There’s never been a study of this magnitude or this depth done before,” said Michael O’Connell, project manager for the Western Interprovincial Scientific Studies Association. The not-for-profit company is managing the study at arm’s length from industry and government.

“We may not have the opportunity to do this again,” in terms of getting the co-operation of so many cattle producers and participation of top-notch researchers and a blue-ribbon science advisory panel, O’Connell said in an interview.

Tee Guidotti, co-chair of the study’s science advisory panel, said the conflict in Alberta over oilfield gas flaring “is like a nagging sore that’s been picked at and irritated for over two decades.

“Now’s a chance to finally heal it, and to bring together the two bedrock heritage groups in the province – the cattle producers and the oil and gas industry.”

But if sufficient funds aren’t found to complete the research, “the comprehensiveness of the study will definitely be compromised,” Guidotti said. If that happens, researchers will at least try to finish work on core aspects of the cattle study, he added.

The Alberta government has contributed $11 million toward the study, but the only other funding has been $20,000 from the B.C. government.

Alberta, Saskatchewan and B.C. each has a livestock industry, as well as a petroleum industry that engages in flaring – the burning of unwanted or uneconomical natural gas.

The oil and gas industry, through the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, did pledge $1 million last week toward completing the study, O’Connell said.

Also, Gary Sargent, general manager of the Alberta Cattle Commission, said: “We are recommending to our board that the Alberta Cattle Commission provide $150,000 in funding towards the completion of the study, and we encourage other organizations in the agricultural sector to also show their support for this worthwhile project.”

While welcoming the new funding, O’Connell noted that completing the cattle study by the end of this year still requires an additional $6.9 million. That includes the $5 million by March 31 just to finish collecting data on herd health and air monitoring in the three provinces.

Researchers are studying flaring and beef cattle health in about 150 herds in Alberta, six herds in northeastern B.C.’s natural gas fields, and about 45 herds in Saskatchewan.

The study – providing sufficient funding is found – will be able to answer whether exposure to flaring emissions is harming cattle productivity, reproductive health and their resistance to diseases, Guidotti said.

The research is the first investigation of its kind that will distinguish between any negative effects due to flaring emissions versus other factors, such as ranchers’ herd-management practices, soil and pasture conditions, and localized outbreaks of disease in the animals.

Another part of the study examines the impact of flaring on the European starling. Birds – like the canaries once taken into underground mines to detect poisonous coal gas – are typically more sensitive than animals or people to toxic chemicals.

The European starling will readily make its home in wooden nesting boxes, enabling researchers to follow the black birds from nestling to adult stage.

One-third of the western Canada study remains missing, however. Alberta Health and Wellness says an investigation of flaring’s impact on people isn’t necessary, because the department does its own studies.

But Guidotti said that Alberta Health’s studies don’t track, over a lengthy period, exposure to the specific chemicals from flaring and health effects in people. The cattle and bird research will answer two-thirds of the question that has dogged Alberta for decades, Guidotti said.

“But to leave the other one-third hanging out there without resolution . . . I think is too bad.”