24/7 heavy truck traffic is a given in an operational oil and gas development area. A September election is looming, and PC Leader Blaine Higgs wants to lift the fracking moratorium for communities that want it. He specifically mentions Sussex and Albert County, although Hillsborough Village Council clearly stated they oppose fracking in their jurisdiction and Riverside-Albert and Alma agree.
Locations of active and exploratory wells around Hillsborough, one in close proximity to both village water supplies. Higgs’ approach may seem reasonable, but the consequences of oil and gas development affect everyone, whether they support it or not. Companies lease lands from people who make a decision based on their own financial needs, yet neighbors and community have no choice but to share the impacts. The private profits are generally short-lived, as well productivity declines quickly, while environmental degradation often cannot be reversed. We all pay for the added burdens on healthcare, road repair and the increased cost of living. This leads to division and conflict, as Beth Nixon knows well.
Nixon hosted well sites on her Penobsquis farm and now lives with air pollution from flaring. She’s kept records of every toxic spill and incident since the fracking began. Hers was one of 60 families who lost well water after an aquifer began draining through a subterranean crack into the potash mine. Coincidentally, the crack appeared shortly after Corridor Resources began seismic testing and fracking in the vicinity. It took five years for the affected families to get a new water pipeline.
Nixon was one of the first people WEPAC (Water and Environmental Protection for Albert County) consulted in 2011 after we learned Contact Exploration received approval to bring 31 new and/or existing wells into production in the Stoney Creek oilfield, and hoped to develop more in Hillsborough. Contact Exploration had already drilled/fracked three oilfield wells, drilled two exploratory gas wells outside village limits on the Salem Road and on Fairview Drive. Another exploratory well was drilled in Edgett’s Landing within 2 km of both Hillsborough water sources and in close proximity to private wells.
Hillsborough and Stoney Creek are no strangers to extractive industries. Toxic berms from the gypsum plant still seep sludge alongside the Petitcodiac River; sinkholes and limestone caves are now part of a recreation area. Old oil and gas wells are hidden throughout the landscape.
The formations targeted for fossil fuel extraction extend from Memramcook to Hillsborough, through Rosevale to Elgin and Penobsquis. Albert County was poised to become a frack zone until the provincial Liberal party’s moratorium on fracking.
Nixon hosted well sites on her Penobsquis farm and now lives with air pollution from flaring. She’s kept records of every toxic spill and incident since the fracking began. Hers was one of 60 families who lost well water after an aquifer began draining through a subterranean crack into the potash mine. Coincidentally, the crack appeared shortly after Corridor Resources began seismic testing and fracking in the vicinity. It took five years for the affected families to get a new water pipeline.
Nixon was one of the first people WEPAC (Water and Environmental Protection for Albert County) consulted in 2011 after we learned Contact Exploration received approval to bring 31 new and/or existing wells into production in the Stoney Creek oilfield, and hoped to develop more in Hillsborough. Contact Exploration had already drilled/fracked three oilfield wells, drilled two exploratory gas wells outside village limits on the Salem Road and on Fairview Drive. Another exploratory well was drilled in Edgett’s Landing within 2 km of both Hillsborough water sources and in close proximity to private wells.
Hillsborough and Stoney Creek are no strangers to extractive industries. Toxic berms from the gypsum plant still seep sludge alongside the Petitcodiac River; sinkholes and limestone caves are now part of a recreation area. Old oil and gas wells are hidden throughout the landscape.
The formations targeted for fossil fuel extraction extend from Memramcook to Hillsborough, through Rosevale to Elgin and Penobsquis. Albert County was poised to become a frack zone until the provincial Liberal party’s moratorium on fracking.
Documented impacts
Fossil fuel proponents say they’ve been “fracking for 60 years without incident” and they’ve “drilled 175,000 wells with no evidence of contamination.”
Fake News.
Fact One: Modern fracking technology—a high-intensity, multi-stage operation which combines horizontal drilling and uses massive amounts of water (or gas), mixed with sand and toxic chemical to blast formation rock releasing trapped oil and gas—has ignited this unprecedented drilling frenzy since about 2004. Fracked landscapes look like microchips: a tangle of well-pads, waste ponds, pipelines and roads.
Fact Two: Since 2012, the petroleum industry has repeatedly stated they’ve safely drilled 175,000 wells, but Alberta alone now has over 450,000 wells and Saskatchewan hopes to overtake them. There are countless cases of property destruction, but when the evidence clearly indicts them, industry usually settles out of court with compensation and gag orders, so the public never hears the truth.
Andrew Nikiforuk has written three books on the industry in Canada. The latest, Slick Water: Fracking and One Insider’s Stand Against the World’s Most Powerful Industry documents industry’s track record and the struggles of Jessica Ernst who filed an expensive lawsuit in 2007 after Encana contaminated water wells in Rosebud, AB (it’s not over yet). He also writes about Diana Daunheimer (also suing the industry) and then there’s the Campbells, the Thomases, the Hawkwoods, the Mildenstiens, the Hemeyers, Dr. Gary Tresidder…all Canadians who have gone public with their experiences. Many others remain silent.
Dr. Emily Eaton studies the impacts of oil and gas extraction on communities in Saskatchewan, calling it the Wild West of Fracking, where government colludes with industry and a culture of silence keeps people from speaking out because a neighbour, friend, or a family member might be an oil worker. She told me one man sought justice for seven years after his daughter became sick from contaminated water. Emily Eaton was the first person he’d ever told.
During an interview, when I asked her what she’d say to communities considering fracking, she said, “There may be some jobs and economic benefits in the short term, but the investment in communities is also short term and it leaves its infrastructures and liabilities behind. Do you want to invest in something that leaves you vulnerable to international markets, or invest in an economy that makes you strong and resilient?”
After a short-lived boom, Saskatchewan communities are suffering the bust now.
Fossil fuel proponents say they’ve been “fracking for 60 years without incident” and they’ve “drilled 175,000 wells with no evidence of contamination.”
Fake News.
Fact One: Modern fracking technology—a high-intensity, multi-stage operation which combines horizontal drilling and uses massive amounts of water (or gas), mixed with sand and toxic chemical to blast formation rock releasing trapped oil and gas—has ignited this unprecedented drilling frenzy since about 2004. Fracked landscapes look like microchips: a tangle of well-pads, waste ponds, pipelines and roads.
Fact Two: Since 2012, the petroleum industry has repeatedly stated they’ve safely drilled 175,000 wells, but Alberta alone now has over 450,000 wells and Saskatchewan hopes to overtake them. There are countless cases of property destruction, but when the evidence clearly indicts them, industry usually settles out of court with compensation and gag orders, so the public never hears the truth.
Andrew Nikiforuk has written three books on the industry in Canada. The latest, Slick Water: Fracking and One Insider’s Stand Against the World’s Most Powerful Industry documents industry’s track record and the struggles of Jessica Ernst who filed an expensive lawsuit in 2007 after Encana contaminated water wells in Rosebud, AB (it’s not over yet). He also writes about Diana Daunheimer (also suing the industry) and then there’s the Campbells, the Thomases, the Hawkwoods, the Mildenstiens, the Hemeyers, Dr. Gary Tresidder…all Canadians who have gone public with their experiences. Many others remain silent.
Dr. Emily Eaton studies the impacts of oil and gas extraction on communities in Saskatchewan, calling it the Wild West of Fracking, where government colludes with industry and a culture of silence keeps people from speaking out because a neighbour, friend, or a family member might be an oil worker. She told me one man sought justice for seven years after his daughter became sick from contaminated water. Emily Eaton was the first person he’d ever told.
During an interview, when I asked her what she’d say to communities considering fracking, she said, “There may be some jobs and economic benefits in the short term, but the investment in communities is also short term and it leaves its infrastructures and liabilities behind. Do you want to invest in something that leaves you vulnerable to international markets, or invest in an economy that makes you strong and resilient?”
After a short-lived boom, Saskatchewan communities are suffering the bust now.
Leaking Wells
Here in Albert County, bad water is common surrounding the century-old Stoney Creek oilfields. But it’s often blamed on ‘natural occurrences’ because the oil- and gas-bearing rock comes close to the surface. How can we be certain?
What the industry does know for certain—and has for decades—is that methane and other gases do migrate through well casings, existing fissures and faults to water-bearing rock, and to the surface. A 2018 study says methane emissions from leaking wells are 60% higher than previously thought. Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas contributor to global warming. It’s released throughout the entire extraction process via truck traffic, drilling, flaring and leaking wells.
In 2012, one Stoney Creek homeowner discovered methane and barium had entered their water. Another continues to suffer the ill effects of gas flaring from a nearby well, which highlights two other problems: air pollution and government inaction to protect citizens.
Here in Albert County, bad water is common surrounding the century-old Stoney Creek oilfields. But it’s often blamed on ‘natural occurrences’ because the oil- and gas-bearing rock comes close to the surface. How can we be certain?
What the industry does know for certain—and has for decades—is that methane and other gases do migrate through well casings, existing fissures and faults to water-bearing rock, and to the surface. A 2018 study says methane emissions from leaking wells are 60% higher than previously thought. Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas contributor to global warming. It’s released throughout the entire extraction process via truck traffic, drilling, flaring and leaking wells.
In 2012, one Stoney Creek homeowner discovered methane and barium had entered their water. Another continues to suffer the ill effects of gas flaring from a nearby well, which highlights two other problems: air pollution and government inaction to protect citizens.
A frack zone north of the Athabasca River, AB. Click image to see location on Google Earth. Everyone shares the impact
Fracking removes massive amounts of fresh water from lakes, rivers and aquifers, destroying our most valuable renewable resource for a non-renewable resource. Heavily fracked areas in the west are experiencing drought and farmers are losing traditional water sources while industry sucks rivers and lakes dry.
In recent years, over 1300 peer-reviewed studies have documented the environmental and health harms. Heavy truck traffic, noise and flaring, stress and congestion on existing roads, fragmented landscape...How does this industrial zone co-exist with a Fundy Biosphere Reserve and world class eco-tourism destination?
The economics
BC provides more incentives to industry than it collects in royalties. The Saskatchewan government subsidizes the industry with billions, while reducing budgets for education, libraries and parks. Cleaning up orphaned wells in Alberta and Saskatchewan could cost the taxpayers billions.
Meanwhile, Vermont’s clean energy labour force has increased by 29% since 2013, employing over 19,000 workers. Massachusetts has an $11.4 billion clean energy sector with 109,000 workers.
We don’t have to pay for jobs and economic recovery with the health and well-being of our families and our environment. We don’t have to soil where we sleep.
Fracking removes massive amounts of fresh water from lakes, rivers and aquifers, destroying our most valuable renewable resource for a non-renewable resource. Heavily fracked areas in the west are experiencing drought and farmers are losing traditional water sources while industry sucks rivers and lakes dry.
In recent years, over 1300 peer-reviewed studies have documented the environmental and health harms. Heavy truck traffic, noise and flaring, stress and congestion on existing roads, fragmented landscape...How does this industrial zone co-exist with a Fundy Biosphere Reserve and world class eco-tourism destination?
The economics
BC provides more incentives to industry than it collects in royalties. The Saskatchewan government subsidizes the industry with billions, while reducing budgets for education, libraries and parks. Cleaning up orphaned wells in Alberta and Saskatchewan could cost the taxpayers billions.
Meanwhile, Vermont’s clean energy labour force has increased by 29% since 2013, employing over 19,000 workers. Massachusetts has an $11.4 billion clean energy sector with 109,000 workers.
We don’t have to pay for jobs and economic recovery with the health and well-being of our families and our environment. We don’t have to soil where we sleep.
Deborah Carr is a member of Water and Environmental Protection for Albert County, which provides information on hydraulic fracturing and advocates for a cleaner, healthier, more sustainable energy future.
RSS Feed