ReturnToTheTarSands

I have been visiting Turner Valley my whole life. It’s a small place (pop. 1800), with one major intersection, a gas station, and a bit of an empty feel. But the people are friendly, the hotel bar has great music on the weekends, and from the outside, it appears to be a content, picturesque community nestled in the foothills of the majestic Rocky Mountains. And that’s how I always saw it, until now…

It turns out that it is the birthplace of Alberta’s oil and gas industry (1914) and once the largest oil producer in the British Empire. Only a few hundred meters from the center of town are the remains of the Old Gas Plant, now a National Historic Site that is closed while a government appointed panel decides whether or not it should become a tourist destination with an interpretive centre. It sits on the banks of the Sheep River.

There was still a cloudy assurance that the town was taking good care of itself, as we toured with a historian and author, Mr. David Finch that had been arranged by the Oil Field Society. He dressed as a oil worker from the 40’s, and gave us the history of the Old Gas Plant.

We gazed at the remains from across a river. I absentmindedly believed the current decontamination work was reliable. All those stories of dangerous working conditions and crude and benzene bubbling into the river belonged to a different world, long ago. Natives had used the crude to waterproof their canoes for centuries.

That night we were staying at the Oil Fields Arena, (in Black Diamond, a community 3 km downstream from Turner Valley) courtesy of the Black Diamond Boys and Girls Club. Hot chili was prepared, and it was the first night we spent indoors after nearly a week of riding. We had internet, some people brought us beer…

And then Roxanne showed up. I’d been really excited to meet her ever since I’d heard she was one of the local activists responsible for the government spending millions on building a containment wall and monitoring system at the Old Gas Plant site where very little was done previously to decontaminate it. The Government purchased it for a dollar in 1985 and let it sit leaking into the Sheep River.

We quickly left the arena and stood outside the back doors to talk. She is not always well received around town. The Mayor of Black Diamond, David Finch, and various other prominent people from around town were inside the arena, so she preferred to avoid confrontation.

She had a contagious nervous energy that hit me hard. I was shocked out of the dream world where the 1940 oil industry was all cleaned up. She went back 2 years to describe a flood where soil from under the Old Gas Plant was slumping into the Sheep River. There were 3 floods in 3 weeks, and they were higher than the flood in 1995. The contamination at the Old Gas Plant is considered Tier 3C. A Calgarian who is familiar with Alberta’s remediation guidelines for former oil and gas sites questioned whether this legal category existed. Tiers refer to whether or not the site should be evaluated according to certain parameters for levels (I.e.: Hydrocarbons cannot exceed XX mg/kg or according to a more site-specific approach (I.e.: This site is in an area where there are naturally occurring high levels of hydrocarbons). Tier 3C basically means “forget cleaning it up – just take samples at a distance and try to contain it.” However this was a popular swimming hole for locals, and since people lived to 100 years old, there was thought to be no problems.

So within a few minutes, I had gotten our water management scholar (Kathy) and documentary film maker (Jodie) and we were following Roxanne down the highway to go investigate a flare which would be considered illegal by today’s standards. It was getting dark as we pulled up to the banks of the Sheep River, next to the Old Gas Plant. Sure enough there was a huge sour gas flare blasting out of cracks in the rocks. There was a fence around it and an electric ignition device making sure the flame did not go out, but given the well publicized extreme fire risk, I was a little surprised to see it at ground level, surrounded by dry grass and giving off a hell of a smell.

Less than 100 feet away and directly downhill from the tanks that held benzene during the founding of the oil industry was a drinking water well for the town of Turner Valley. The well was close to level with the Sheep River but had 3 foot high walls of sandbags around it to protect it (which incidentally did not protect it during the flood in 2005). Roxanne has been trying to get water testing with expanded parameters done on Turner Valley’s water supply, but has met heavy resistance.

The town of Turner Valley is building a raw water storage reservoir on a piece of land that was heavily impacted by the oil and gas industry just to the west of the old gas plant site. A friend of hers, another concerned citizen had caused the town’s lawyer to write a 72 page document on why she shouldn’t have intervener status at an upcoming Hearing regarding the concerns with the reservoir site.

Many people in the town blame Roxanne for escalating taxes due to additional water testing costs and legal fees that are associated with the town defending their decision to build on a drinking water reservoir on a contaminated piece of land. And at $150- $300 per hour for a lawyer, 72 pages of verbal diarrhea is definitely a waste of tax payer’s money.

Despite the Alberta Environmental Protection Act encouraging citizens to get involved with protecting the environment, it is not an easy process to ensure the environment is protected, not to mention the people using the water supply. Through the Hearing process citizens can submit personal costs for the work they contribute to the Alberta Environmental Appeals Board that helps them make their recommendations to the Minister of Environment. Roxanne doesn’t expect much reimbursement for the time she has spent doing research and attending meetings, all on her own time. If someone were able to calculate the economic value of future health care and suffering plus the destroyed integrity of the water system in Turner Valley, a few billion now to truly clean up the Gas Plant site and the rest of the Town site would probably save everyone immensely.

We marveled at the new containment wall between the Old Gas Plant and the Sheep River. It stopped liquid drainage off the site and directed them downhill to a treatment facility. Roxanne and her friend appealed to the Federal Government, (The Department of Fisheries and Oceans and Environment Canada through the Deputy Auditor General of Canada) which initiated an investigation. Another reason it was recognized is that Roxanne was able to get the media out to witness a flood where the contaminated banks were slumping into the river. The government doesn’t like bad press.

Roxanne feels that the risk management approach to dealing with the contamination that is still at the Gas Plant is just ensuring future generations will have to deal with it and that the tax payers of Alberta will have to continue paying money to its upkeep (monitoring and maintaining). Budget cuts in the past is the excuse the government gave for doing nothing for 20 years allowing the contamination to flow into the Sheep River. There are no guarantees this government or future governments won’t do the same. Alberta has very stringent laws regarding the environment; it appears these laws are not being enforced.

Filed under: Commentary, Environmental Justice, Media, TTTS on October 13th, 2007