Rosebud resident fights for clean water – part 1

Times Reporter

 

Typically holding a lighter near a running water hose wouldn’t be something to be concerned about, but when that water catches fire, something is not right. In December 2005, Fiona Lauridson and her family realized something was terribly wrong with their water after noticing bright, red marks that turned into scabs on their skin after showering. In 2003, EnCana drilled two sites on her property and another near it. Lauridson is sure it’s the cause of her water contamination. 

“It wasn’t like this before you came, it’s like this now and it’s no longer a natural system. Its been tampered with,” said Lauridson. 

She is convinced it’s the fracturing, fracking method, oil and gas companies use when drilling for Coal Bed Methane, CBM. Fracking is when the ground is drilled into and pumped with fracturing fluids to fracture the coal or rock. Once it’s been fracked, it then releases methane gas.

“You’ve disturbed that whole purification system, now it has a leak and it’s got some that’s exposed. Now impurities and gas are coming out, that would have never come out before because they were under pressure,” said Lauridson.    

She said it’s in the aquifer because EnCana blasted the fractures, put chemicals in, and were producing gas out of the same coal zone her water passes through. 

“It’s kind of like if you have bad water in your house, people put carbon filters on because it’s a very good purifier. That’s why we use coal seams as aquifers because it’s porous, the water can go through and the impurities stick to the coal, its really good,” said Lauridson.  

For CBM drilling, they de-water the coal seam, letting the water drain down so there is exposed coal. The gas comes out because the pressure is gone, and they siphon that gas off, said Lauridson. 

“When you drill a water well into a coal seam and you pump that water well, that liberates more natural gas from those shallow locations,” said Alan Boras, Vice-President of Media Relations for EnCana.  

Boras said they drill deeper, put in casing, steel piping and cement to make sure they don’t interact with the aquifers at shallow depths.  

There has been a low level of methane in the Rosebud area water supply for a number of years. Lauridson said it was naturally occurring gas from deep underground, that had found a natural fissure to escape out of into the aquifer.

The water issues in Rosebud have been focused a lot, on methane in water wells. Boras said it’s been well documented as naturally occurring, and has existed there for a long time. A few people in the Rosebud area filed complaints in 2005 after witnessing differences in their water quality. Alberta Environment, AENV, investigated, working with residents to determine where the concern was coming from. 

 “A lot of work was done monitoring, analysis of the water quality for different contaminants, that sort of thing,” said Cara Tobin, Public Affairs Officer for Alberta Environment.  

“The result of our findings was that the contamination was naturally occurring. We noticed that in many cases, and many cases around the province, one of the biggest reasons for changes in quality of ground water is a lack of maintenance of their wells.”

One thing Tobin said is a necessity, is flash chlorinating the well every few years to help maintain it. AENV stated not chlorinating water wells could produce abundant methane gas. 

“If this is true we can solve the energy crisis. Simple, drill a water well, use it daily but don’t dump in any chlorine and bingo, you have gas, lots of it. We’ll never run out. So let’s quit CBM and let the water wells get dirty with normally occurring bacteria in them and there we have it …natural gas with no more drilling,” said Lauridson.

“Unless of course that’s not what happens and AENV are trying to deflect responsibility for allowing gas development in aquifers and shame landowners into silence.”

Both gas and water are publicly owned resources and Lauridson said the public should have a say about sacrificing one to develop the other. In March 2006, EnCana released a report regarding research they had done on the Lauridson’s water well and CBM well sites. The report absolved EnCana of all blame. 

Lauridson went to the Alberta Resource Council, ARC, who reviewed the information collected. The ARC said the gas is probably coming from the same coal seam the water was coming from, and not likely caused by energy development projects. Lauridson said it wasn’t true because an intact coal seam aquifer gives off very little methane. From studies she’s had conducted, showing water coming from a coal seam doesn’t mean it’s full of methane. She said to an uninformed person it might sound like a reasonable explanation. Lauridson said the scientist she had researching her well, said there are indications there is cross contamination underground due to all the cracks and fractures, and that gas from deeper down in the earth is coming up into the aquifer. She said the more they crack it, the more pathways there are for gas to come out. Due to the constant pressure from fracking and increased cracks and fractures underground, there are now more fissures for the gas to leak through allowing an elevated amount of methane to leak into the aquifer, contaminating the water.  

“You have to look at, before man came along and interfered with that system, it was like a closed tin can,” said Lauridson.

“No, the gas didn’t come off, it was stuck in there. The water poured through, it went through clean, it was good to drink and it was good to use. Now it isn’t. Now it’s heavily contaminated with methane.”

Lauridson challenged the findings from AENV and EnCana. She met with Minister of Environment Rob Renner to show him some of the inconsistencies she had found. She gave him a list of the inconsistencies, saying she wanted other scientists in the field to look and either confirm or challenge the findings of the review. AENV refused to have that done.

“I can’t really do anything about that. If they refused to have it done, they refuse to have it done. They said they are confident in this review,” said Lauridson.  

“The government has decided they are satisfied with the findings of the investigation.” 

She said the review never said definitively where the gas had come from. They said it is most likely from the coal seams but they have no data to back this claim, said Lauridson. 

“There’s just so much gas in my water and the government wanted to blame me and other landowners for not taking good care of our wells.”