In Alberta, water is burning!

SEPTEMBER 2007: Agricultural Co-operator 4746 The Agricultural Co-operator - SEPTEMBER 2007 PHOTO: TO PRECIVE methane from the water of its wells has increased from 0 to 75,800 parts per million, transforming its drinking water into an explosive cocktail. Deprived of the essential liquid, part of the herd has been grazed with snow all winter to quench its thirst. As a result, the Alberta breeder has also found himself on an equal footing with a third world producer. Four times a week, he goes to the nearby village of Wetaskiwin, located 35 kilometres from his farm, looking for drinking water to meet the domestic needs of his family.

The company responsible for drilling the well, Quicksilver Resources Canada, denies any liability. In the crowded room of the Horsemen Hotel, an official of the Alberta Energy Utilities Board (AEUB), a quasi-judicial body responsible for regulating the oil industry, suggests that the farmer should have the wells of his farm and his house rehabilitated. The farmer could indeed benefit from assistance to rehabilitate or have new wells dug. The operation costs between $5,000 and $15,000 per well, partly on presentation of invoices.

Since 2002, 99 rural residents have received nearly $570,000 in compensation by bringing their case to the Farmers Advocate of Alberta, an organization that compensates landowners for the loss of their wells allegedly attributed to the oil and gas industry."Despite our name, we are not legally representing producers," said Dale Zimmerman, who has been peed by eyes, mouth, nose, ears and back. "We are not legally representing producers," she plowed her belly with her hoofs to try to extinguish the fire. "My veterinarian has never seen this in 20 years of work!"

The shy cow breeder describes the agony of one of his animals at the Alberta Surface Right Federation meeting last November. Two hundred people are suspended from the producer's lips in a hotel in Camrose, a city in central Alberta and the epicentre of drought 2002. Dale Zimmerman has lost thirteen cows and one horse since September 2005. The post mor tem analysis of a laboratory of the Alberta Ministry of Agriculture on one of the animals concludes that food poisoning was caused by hay mould containing mellot.

The breeder does not believe it. First, because the lab veterinarian dissected a red-headed cow with a white head while his beast had a black and white head, which is why there is no doubt that he did not search the guts of the good animal. Second, because his round balls contain only a tiny trace of white mellile, because the forage plant does not grow in its fields. Dale Zimmerman thinks instead that his animals died after drinking water potentially contaminated with the drilling of a natural coal gas well (NGC) dug on a ranch that is about 1.5 kilometres away from his farm.

Laboratory analyses indicate that the rate of water in Alberta is burning! Water file Texts and photos by Nicolas Mesly Here is the second of a series of three reports about the burning conflict between Alberta's two most powerful lobbies, beef and oil and gas. Some rural producers and residents are not reluctant to call their province "petro tyranny." Here is the second of a series of three reports about the burning conflict between Alberta's two most powerful lobbies, beef and the oil and gas industry.

Some rural producers and residents are not reluctant to call their province "tyranny petro." Originally from Quebec, Jessica Ernst, an environmental consultant to the oil industry, is conducting a crusade against the Canadian multinational Encana, the largest independent natural gas producer in North America. In the background, a battery of compressors that act as vacuum cleaners to extract low-level natural gas from coal. Farmers and rural residents are helpless to assist in the unbridled industrialization of the countryside.

Since September 2005, Fiona Lauridsen has been in the same situation as Dale Zimmerman. Her cows refuse to drink. The water of the hose watering and the water flowing from the taps of the house is sparkling like a 7-Up. And if you crack a match close to the vital liquid, it takes on fire!

The water analysis of the Lauridsen farm by Alberta's Ministry of Environment reveals that it contains a phenomenal amount of methane. Methane can be found naturally in the artesian wells because of the geology of the Alberta basement. But the former chemistry technician indicates that its water also contains chemicals used by industry to drill wells and extract oil and gas from the earth's bowels."All my family had a serious skin reaction by taking a shower just before midnight mass.

If this had happened elsewhere, there would be a public health survey!" says the beef producer who is growing 1,400 hectares in Rosebud, a quiet hamlet of about 100 people located in the busy corridor between Calgary and Edmonton. The majority of the 50,000 Albertan agricultural producers live with one or more oil or gas wells on their iron. The province's soil is perforated with 350,000 conventional wells like a needle ball. And the royalties paid by the companies to producers are an interesting supplement income in an area seriously affected by successive mad cow crises or yo-yo prices of wheat or canola.

However, Fiona Lauridsen is now wondering whether the rent from the CNG wells installed by the Canadian multinational Encana on her land really compensates for the loss of the liquid essential: $1,000 per well at the time of installation, followed by an annuity of $350 per year. "What do you want to do on a farm without water?" she says. Jessica Ernst, her neighbor, sympathizes. Her water also boils and simmers by cracking a match on the surface.

Ernst, an environmental consultant in the oil and gas industry, who has 20 years of experience, argues that one of the 200 or so CNG wells drilled by Encana around Rosebud contaminated the regional aquifer, and that he would have ruined his own artesian well, Fiona Lauridsen and another neighbour, Debbie Signer, a single parent mother who invested all her savings in a tourist lodge located on the outskirts of the village whose inhabitants rely on tourism to turn the local economy.

"This is still under investigation by Alberta's Department of the Environment. But to date, no well water analysis indicates contamination by other industries or by E ncana," explains Leanne Deighton, a spokesman for Encana, the largest independent natural gas producer in North America with a book value of approximately $30 billion. In 2004, the State of Colorado in the United States fined the Canadian multinational $371,200 for contaminated small streams, the most severe fine imposed by this PHOTO: PRECIOUS but we act as mediator," said Jim Kiss, President, adding that "producers are free to pursue the company in court to obtain more compensation.

But it is difficult to establish the evidence, because science is not accurate." Z immanman hired $5,000 in free of charge to pursue the company. In the event that he wins the trial, "it won't give me my water," he says. As for the rehabilitation of his wells, none of the three contact companies specializing in the field has time to deal with his case because of the economic boom.

In May 2006, a producer and two employees of a company were seriously injured by the explosion of a methane-contaminated well, converted into a bomb. In the Horsemen's Hall, another farmer cast a loud voice, without the help of the microphone: "We can replace a well, but how are you going to replace an aquifer?" The two representatives of the Alberta government present at this meeting remained silent.

The great oil reserves in the oil sands may give the province the title "Alberta Arabia." But the Alberta economic boom is in fact based on natural gas exploitation. The increase in its price, from $2 per gigajoule in 1996 to over $12 in 2005, a record, allowed companies and trusts to earn historical profits (1 gigajoule of gas to cook 2,500 Hamburgers). Provincial and federal governments do not remain thirsty.

In 2006, for example, the Alberta government's gas royalties of $8.34 billion are more than five times higher than the oil sector of $1.46 billion. However, according to the National Energy Board of Canada, readily available natural gas inventories are almost dry. And the Alberta industry is turning to a new Klondike, natural coal gas (NGC) which is gas-based, the oil sands. CNG is the result of the decomposition of peat and other vegetable materials.

Fearing miners from around the world, this CNG, better known as a firecracker, consists of almost pure methane. And in Alberta, the situation between farmers and industry has become as explosive as methane itself. Because the two large deposits of CNG are not only close to the surface of the best agricultural land, but also in the most densely populated areas. 48 Agricultural Co-operators - SEPTEMBER 2007 Water Four times a week Dale Zimmerman goes to the village to buy 757 litres (200 gallons) of drinking water each time to support his family's domestic needs.

At minus 40°C, you have to thaw the hose's alve to be able to bring the vital liquid home. It's not a sinecure! "Which members of my family had a serious skin reaction by taking a shower just before midnight mass. In another province, there would be a public health survey!" says F iona Lauridsen, a Rosebud farmer, who has no more drinking water.

The Alberta Ministry of the Environment is still investigating where the contamination is coming from. And since February 2006, Encana has been delivering water to her as a "good neighbour policy." SEPTEMBER 2007: Agricultural Co-operator 49 "My little girl has nightmares wondering if her children will die like the dogs."Dale Zimmerman has no more drinking water on her farm.

Part of the snow-drinking herd. The breeder wants to pursue the company that drilled a natural coal gas (NGC) well in a neighbour. Alberta's Department of Environment investigation, the first involving CNG, is still not completed. SEPTEMBER 2007:

Zimmerman and owners Jessica Ernst, Fiona Lauridsen and Debbie Signer, who were to be ready by the end of February 2007, were still not available. It is that the government of Alberta's newly-created Conservative Premier Ed Stelmach, himself an agricultural producer, is very upset. At the request of the Ministry of the Environment, the natural gas expert at the University of Alberta, Dr. Karlis Muellenbachs analysed 200 water samples, including those of the three Rosebud residents and the water of Dale Z Imman wells.

These "d-isotopes" tests developed by the geochemist allow the comparison of gases from different geological formations with those from water samples. For this expert, there is no doubt that seventy years of oil exploitation coupled with seismic research, which uses, among other things, blasting to detect the formidable carbon deposits, have shaken the Alberta basement."I am sure that the oil industry has contaminated the water in the past through the drilling of conventional wells," he says.

As for the new gas sill, "I analyzed the composition of the gases in Mr. Zimmerman's water after the contamination, but I didn't have a sample before. In my experience, it is possible that it was contaminated by the nearby CNG well, but I can't prove it," explains the scientist in a telephone interview, aware that his words are a political burn. According to Jessica Ernst, the new government measure of mandatory water tests has a gross gap since it does not require companies to analyze water from their own wells for comparison purposes, nor to make this information public.

"The Alberta government does not require companies to provide a list of the chemicals they use to drill their wells and stimulate natural gas production, which would allow us to identify in a certain way the source of contamination of our artesian wells and aquifers. It is as if an RCMP police officer took a fingerprint at the bank where the theft took place, but refuses to prepare the suspect's fingerprint. Can you establish the evidence?

The Liberal critic, David Swann, has asked the conservative government, in power without interruption for 35 years, to set up an independent scientific commission to investigate the possible contamination of groundwater caused by drilling in the oil industry, both conventional wells and CNG wells. "The government refuses, because it is afraid of being prosecuted in collective action, like tobacco companies," he says. "The government is a state to an oil and gas company.

"The company was convicted of misproducing a conventional well, not a CNG well," says Brian Macke, director of the Colorado Oil and Gas Environment Commission. "Encana, headquartered in Calgary, owns 700,000 hectares of concession land in the heart of Alberta and is the leader of the CNG revolution in beef country. From 2004 to 2007, the Goliath energy expanded its production there."When I signed my contract in December 2005, Encana never informed me that it was digging a CNG well on my land.

I started to be seriously concerned about my water when I knew what was happening in the United States at a village meeting," explains Kevin Niemi, a Terrington field crop producer who is trying to renegotiate his contract."There have been cases of water contamination in the United States due to CNG operations. But not all coal deposits have been created equally. The situation in Alberta is very different.

It's like comparing a Ford truck with a Lamborguini," says Mike Dawson, president of the Canadian Society of Non-Conventional Gas Producers (CCGSGN). Founded in 2002, the company brings together all major players in the energy sector: Shell, Nexen, Apache, Quicksilver Resources Canada, etc. Dawson, a training geologist, CNG wells are drilled into coal wires to protect artesian wells and the fracturing process to stimulate natural gas production uses liquid nitrogen, a gas everyone breathes.

Moreover, when companies draw from thousands of chemicals – emulsifiers, lubricants, anticorrosion, foam agents – to drill and stimulate the production of conventional wells at great depth, they do so according to art to protect aquifers. This opinion is far from shared by all. As a fanatical badger "The development of CNG has been fulgurating in recent years without knowing what the impacts on groundwater and without any adequate regulations to protect landowners," maintains liberal criticism in environmental matters, David Swann.

More than 500,000 Albertans draw their water from artesian wells like straws from a glass of water. Since 2003, more than 7,000 CNG wells have been drilled and plans are under way to dig 50,000 of them in ten years. In May 2006, four years after the first CNG drilling, Alberta's Ministry of Environment introduced a new regulation requiring companies to test artesian wells of residents neighbouring the drilling, even though some companies were doing so voluntarily.

"This will allow us to compare the composition and quality of the water before and after drilling. If there is a change, the owner will be able to file a complaint," says Sherri-Dawn Annett, from the Alberta Ministry of the Environment. "The same department has investigated 55 complaints from citizens who suspect that CNG drilling has contaminated their wells. Ten cases have been resolved without any evidence linking these drillings to well contamination.

Results PHOTO: COLIN SMITH LWeau Jessica Ernst's water simmers! The environmental consultant believes that Encana ruined the water of her artesian well and the regional aquifer. Debbie Signer, owner of a tourist lodge had to write to former Prime Minister Ralph Klein so that the government would continue to deliver drinking water to her after possible contamination of her well by the drilling of Encana company in the region. The Alberta Ministry of the Environment is still investigating the cause of this contamination.

Worried about its drinking water, K evin Niemi tries to renegotiate his contract with Encana. For the producer, the CNG well on his farm is like the tip of an iceberg, the danger is under the surface. 50 Agricultural Co-operators: SEPTEMBER 2007 52 Agricultural Co-operator: SEPTEMBER 2007 Consider exile Glenn brothers and Gary Norman have a conventional oil well on their land for ages and have never caused them a single headache. But no question of letting a company drill a CNG well there.

"We can deny the expression that water is flowing on the back of a duck! The one who has plunged into our pond never came up to the surface," the two former football players who took over the paternal farm. In April 2006, the two colosses noticed a gradual change of colour in one of their ponds to become a phosphorus green after drilling a CNG well at a nearby producer. Wild beasts and cows stopped drinking there.

And what looked like a floating snail on the surface was actually snails running away from their shells."We don't have any evidence, but this GNC well is the only thing that has changed in our environment. It's like an iceberg, the danger is under the surface."As president of the Wheatland Surface Rights Group, Glenn Norman recommends to the approximately 300 families of the association that group 400,000 hectares of cultivable land to pay themselves the accredited laboratories of their choice to carry out water analyses of their wells.

Both colosses plan to spend $6,000 per year, at their own expense, to analyze water from their wells and ponds, because in the event of legal prosecution, they do not trust "the data collected and paid by industry or government." At this time, agricultural creditors do not make a risk distinction between CNG wells and conventional oil and gas wells."Wells on a farm, whatever their type, are part of the business risk as BSE is on beef farming," says Don Anderson, Manager of Farm Credit Canada in Lethbridge.

The banker adds that, in an environmental disaster, companies that own defective wells on a farm are required by law to decontaminate the premises and make them look original. In this case, he was informed of the situation of the Norman brothers, Mr. Anderson, for whom their ponds have passed into a nod from an asset to a liability, indicates that, in this case, in the absence of evidence to the suspected company, the costs of decontamination are the responsibility of the producer. "We could lend the money by re-instating the loan of the company so that the producer continues to have a working capital," explains the banker.

Anderson says he manages 1500 producer accounts worth half a billion dollars and that the situation of the Normans is, for the moment, very rare. The Norman brothers are in a state of rage, because even the uncultivated plots of land entirely dedicated to conservation on their farm are not immune to potential contamination by the nearby drillings. According to them, the risk of pollution will increase as the industry plans to double the current density allowed to quater the CNG well per section (1600 m2) to eight wells per section, a density linked to the price of natural gas.

"At some point, this situation of despair will lead to violence!" says Glenn. "After 50 years, the two brothers even consider selling the family farm and do not exclude the possibility of expatriating to New Zealand or Quebec to start their farming life again, "provided you don't have CNGs!" According to Oscar Steiner, a beekeeper who is mastering the impact of the oil and gas industry in Alberta, the exponential increase in drilling activities devalues the property of 5% and 10%.

As to how much is worth a farm on the ground soaked with contaminated water, the bet is not difficult. Water Glenn and Gary Norman believe that one of their ponds has been contaminated by drilling a nearby CNG well. They are considering selling the family farm to settle in Quebec or New Zealand. SEPTEMBER 2007: The Agricultural Co-operator 53 Sources: KLASZUS, J emery.

" Trouble I n the F ilds , is Our Water Safe?", Alber tavie ws, Octobre 2006. D的ALESIO, Renata, and Tony SESKUS. "What Lies B eneath," Calgar y Herald Special R eport, 15, 16 and 17 no.

"Bur ning Waters", Monday M agazine, 21 June 2006. would not want to solve the current problems before accepting that the company drills seven more wells on our land. But we cannot deny Encana access to our land. It's like a rape!" explains Dona Wise. The 43-year-old producer has no water problems like her neighbours in Rosebud.

But the erosion caused by the installation and maintenance of the 13 wells of Encana by the company's employees turns 31 of the 567 hectares into a minidesert in Arizona. Moreover, the constant v-and-come of the company's staff makes the introduction of mau - valeas herbs such as kochia which causes problems of reproduction in cows or the millet of birds which reduces cereal rediments. The harvest of a hundred lost stakes in the fields has rekindled the seedlings in 2006 and increased the cost of production.

The producer even collected a piece of pants stained with excrement abandoned by a stacked nyed near a GNC well. The list of grievances does not stop there. More than two hundred trucks travel to live daily the r euvre rural once practically deser te. No question for her grandson to go play in front of the house where she herself has granded.

Ken Wise, his father, a farmer known in his environment who has converted a thistle terrify into one of the best wheat terrifies in the country, can no longer sleep the window opener. At the entrance of their farm, six compressors make a noise equivalent to several jets on the point of taking off. And in the night, once starred, shine the flame of a flare and lights of a mini-refinery. Leanne D eighton, spokesman for Encana, indicates in the telephone view that "we have a court program for our employees and our contractors to inspect the environment."

Even the bell sound of the Canadian Society of Unconventional Gas Practitioners, which promotes best management practices."It's not a cowboy country! There are compensations for the very bad things that have been done on land and a well-established system of conflict resolution," says its president, Mike Dawson. "However, the Wise family's feeling of impotence in the face of the unbridled industrialization of the campaign is being tagged by Albertans.

From 2000 to 2006, the number of people asked for from Alberta E nergy Utilities B oard (AEUB) to dig petrole and gas wells increased from 22,550 to about 60,000. The agency, which is responsible for the sheltering of conflicts between industry and rural residents, accepts 97% of the projects submitted to the "name of common interest", sometimes against municipalities made up of hundreds of residents.

These exports are to one country, the United States. If the C anada cannot close a pipeline, the US has a window of access to natural gas for life, despite a domestic shortage or a lack of re gionalisation measures," says S teven Shrybman, an international lawyer at S ack G oldbaltt M herell, Ottawa. "Feeding the future generation of C anadiens or putting gas into full supply to satisfy the American energy glutton?" several Alber farmers are questioning the state of their land in fifty years, once the industry has removed the last molecule of natural gas from the land.

According to Roger Epp, Dean of the University of Alberta, "Agrarians are disempowered, often having a hard time in the oil industry, where they earn a lot of hard wages. They themselves are also hard-working to earn a boost because of the successful crises affecting the sector."The specialist on rural issues adds that "some producers leave the province to move to Sskatchewan where their skills in semi-desert agriculture are required."

However, no albertain or federal government department is compiling data on what could be the first exodus of environmental refugees within Canadian borders.