Alberta landowners must stand up for their rights against the province’s growing coalbed methane industry, American environmentalists warned last Thursday.
Speaking to about 200 people, many of whom were landowners, at the Strathmore Civic Centre, Gwen Lachelt of the Durango, Colo.-based Oil and Gas Accountability Project, and Jill Morrison with the Wyoming-based Powder River Basin Resource Council, presented a bleak picture of coalbed methane drilling’s effects south of the border.
Contending that the natural gas is not a clean fuel, Lachelt and Morrison claimed that coalbed methane drilling in Wyoming’s Powder River Basin and in Colorado, Montana and elsewhere in the U.S. has harmed the freshwater supply; increased noise, traffic, crime and dust; sparked underground fires that cost millions to fight; reduced property
values; and changed some landowners’ quality of life
dramatically.
“We are the stewards of the land and we have an obligation to protect it,” Morrison, a rancher and outfitter, said.
Alberta companies have launched more than 30 pilot projects on an estimated 19.5 trillion cubic feet of coalbed methane, while two – Encana and MGV Energy – have already started production.
Whereas the U.S. coalbed methane industry has been operating for 20 years, Canada’s industry, which operates within conventional oil and gas regulations, is in its infancy.
Lachelt urged landowners to protect their private property; help strengthen existing laws; work to eliminate the use of toxic chemicals in coalbed methane extraction; protect the public interest; and ensure public disclosure of all coalbed methane development.
“We’re here to depress and inspire, so that the same things that happened down in the States don’t happen here,” said Lachelt.
But Mike Gatens, chairman of the Canadian Society for Unconventional Gas, said it’s “absolutely false” to suggest that CBM is not a clean fuel. It’s also “alarmist and misleading” to suggest that what happened in the U.S. will happen exactly the same way here, because geological formations in each U.S. basin are unique – and they’re very different here.
He contended that Alberta’s coalbed methane opponents have not done their homework – and the lack of research is creating public fear and concern.
“It is adding to the regulatory hassles, it’s adding to the
distrust that we’ve been trying to eliminate and build real trust in this province,” said Gatens, also the chairman and CEO of MGV Energy, which has 200 coalbed methane wells in
production and expects to add another 200 this year.
Gatens said coalbed methane developers already must operate within existing water safety and noise regulations, do not use chemicals and, depending on the location of a project, can use existing roads, pipelines, compressor stations and other infrastructure, resulting in minimal cumulative impact.
The geological formations are not conducive to underground fires, he added.
But Don Bester, of the Butte Action Committee that wants the province to issue a moratorium on coalbed methane development until clear policies are established and laws are changed, rejected the argument that geological formations differ north and south of the border.
“We’ll let them have their propaganda because that’s all it is,” Bester told Business Edge. “We’ve seen the same story, the same rhetoric, the same
propaganda in San Juan, Powder River and now into Alberta.”
Since water is pumped into and out of wells, coalbed methane development has raised questions about potential damage to fresh groundwater, used for livestock and households, in some regions.
But some Alberta developers hope to develop so-called dry coalbeds that contain minimal water.
(Gatens’ company came under scrutiny last week when it was learned that one of his company’s properties in
central-southern Alberta had unearthed fresh water. After complying with provincial water-testing requirements, he said MGV decided to transfer the property to a partner because of
concerns about water, and the gas return was not considered large enough.)
The province is not expected to
introduce regulations specific to coalbed methane development until 2004.
