The provincial government is making major changes to how it monitors and enforces reclamation of oil and gas wellsites and other oilfield facilities, despite opposition by landowners and other groups.
Alberta Environment says the changes are meant to streamline the province’s land-reclamation system, which has a backlog of more than 46,000 oilfield sites awaiting approval as being properly restored.
“We’re not going to be on every site anymore,” said David Lloyd, a senior adviser to Alberta Environment.
As of Aug. 1, provincial land-reclamation inspectors who now conduct onsite inspections at virtually every site will no longer be doing so, he told a recent meeting of the Canadian Land Reclamation Association.
Instead, the government’s 18 inspectors – who cover the entire province – will focus on problem and “red-flagged” sites where oilfield contamination exists or is suspected, Lloyd said.
Government inspectors will still do spot checks or onsite audits of at least 15 per cent of all oilfield sites awaiting certification in the province, he said.
But for the 80-90 per cent of sites that typically have no problem, the onus will be on industry to make sure it has done a proper job, and on landowners to ensure their land has been adequately restored.
When oil and gas companies lease private land to drill a well, install a pipeline or build an oilfield facility, they must obtain a reclamation certificate from Alberta Environment proving they have properly restored the site when finished.
Since 1963, more than 60,000 sites in Alberta have received reclamation certificates.
However, there are 28,000 “abandoned” or non-producing wellsites, 18,400 abandoned pipelines and hundreds of “battery” sites (used for gas-liquid separation facilities) still to be certified.
And the backlog is growing, because companies drill more than 15,000 new oil and gas wells and install hundreds of kilometres of new pipelines each year.
The Alberta Surface Rights Federation, a lobby group that represents landowners, passed a resolution at its annual meeting earlier this year opposing the government’s new land-reclamation audit system.
Another resolution called on the province to hire more inspectors to ensure onsite inspections continue. Percy Nelson, a federation director and a farmer near Cadogan in east-central Alberta, said the real problem is that the government has had only 18 land-reclamation inspectors since provincial budget cuts; previously, it had at least 25 inspectors.
“It’s a matter of hiring six or seven more people and the system would run perfectly normal,” he said.
Nelson said the current system of having a provincial inspector do an onsite investigation – accompanied by the landowner and a company official – is the best way of satisfying not only the landowner, but the company’s concerns about any future liability.
Tom Nahirniak, the Surface Rights Federation’s executive secretary, said the government first tried to introduce the audit system about five years ago. Several public meetings were held on the issue around the province, and “everyone said ‘no’ on it,” he said.
It should be the company’s responsibility, not the landowner’s, to ensure the land is properly restored in the first place, Nahirniak said.
Lloyd insisted that this will still be the case under the new system.
Companies will hire a professional environmental consultant to sign off when the work is complete, he said. Alberta Environment will then give the company a reclamation certificate, providing the firm’s paperwork is in order, the company has provided information on the work to the landowner and the landowner is satisfied.
Under the new system, if contamination surfaces after the company gets its certificate, Alberta Environment can cancel the certificate and order a proper cleanup, Lloyd noted.
“We will respond to all complaints,” whether they arise before or after the certificate is issued, he said.
But Karl Zajes, a consultant to landowners on surface rights issues, warned that serious conflicts will occur when companies have to come back on to private land to fix a problem.
The landowner will have to argue with the company for compensation for the loss of using part of his land, because there’s no provision for compensation in either the new audit system or the current inspection system, Zajes said. “Landowners’ concerns are not being addressed.”
Oil and gas companies are hoping the new system will reduce the time it takes to obtain reclamation certificates.
Under the current system, companies must continue paying the landowner surface lease rent until they get their certificates – which can take a while if the onsite inspection is delayed.
Despite the current backlog of uncertified sites, the Alberta Association of Municipal Districts and Counties, at its annual meeting this spring, said that continuing to have provincial inspectors check all sites is the best way to guarantee an unbiased approach.
After Lloyd’s talk in Calgary, some industry representatives in the audience told him they are concerned about paying what Lloyd called “a considerably higher fee” for getting their reclamation certificate.
Alberta Environment says the increased fee will help cover the costs of provincial inspectors doing more thorough investigations of problem sites, including drilling to check for contamination.
But one company official told Lloyd that if the new system is meant to put more responsibility on industry to do the reclamation properly, the inspectors’ audits shouldn’t be necessary.
Another industry official complained about companies having the additional expense of hiring an environmental consultant to sign off on each site. He pointed out that it will still be the company that has to pay for further cleanup, if this person makes a mistake or misses something.
Cliff Wallis, president of the Alberta Wilderness Association, said the government isn’t balancing its need to make the land-reclamation system more cost-effective with the public’s desire for adequate environmental monitoring and enforcement.
“The voluntary compliance approach, as we call it, does not work,” he said in an interview. “You do have to have significant enforcement staff to do the spot checks.”
However, the Alberta government has continually cut back on enforcement and has reduced citizens’ involvement in monitoring industry on the ground, Wallis said.
Alberta Environment plans to form a multi-stakeholder advisory committee – including a representative for landowners – to make recommendations on any outstanding issues and concerns.
But the provincial cabinet has approved the Aug. 1 start-up date, so the new system will proceed, Lloyd said.
“The audit process, we feel, gives us actually better credibility and better ability to handle all the concerns.”
