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ERCB on hot seat at synergy group's open house
A cancelled speaker and some unanswered questions put the Energy Resources Conservation Board on the hot seat at a synergy group open house last week.
“This is a bad day for the ERCB,” Darin Barter, an ERCB communications officer, frankly told the crowd of about 60 people at the Central Mountainview Action Group open house, held last Tuesday in the council chamber at the county building.
With the ERCB’s scheduled speaker on pipelines unable to attend because he was called into the field, a handful of vocal farmers expressed frustration that their questions and concerns could not be addressed.
These included questions about the “area of control” versus pipeline right of way (and concerns over how much land the farmer is compensated for), complaints that sour gas wells aren’t properly marked, and assertions that the ERCB does not know the locations of many pipelines in the province.
The lack of answers and agenda changes prompted one farmer to exclaim: “This is false advertising.”
CMAG facilitator Krista Waters assured the audience that the issues raised on pipelines would be brought up at a future meeting and the ERCB’s Barter also offered to get back to producers with the information they requested.
Even on the issue of wellhead safety, which ERCB field inspector Steve Lutz outlined in his presentation, members of the audience challenged his points.
Lutz said there had been three wellhead hits reported to the Red Deer Field Centre last year and two so far this year.
“So it is a growing problem,” he said.
But with gas companies having right of entry, Glenn R. Norman argued, the liability for an accident should fall on them rather than the farmer, who might not have been made aware of the infrastructure.
Lutz said the best solution was communication between all parties.
“But you’re the regulator,” said Norman, a Red Deer County resident who also owns land in MVC. “It’s time to regulate.”
Members of the audience also challenged AltaLink presenter Colin George, manager of aboriginal and community relations.
“Frankly you aren’t taking biosecurity seriously,” one speaker said. “It’s time you did take biosecurity seriously and make it part of every contract.”
Norman also questioned the effectiveness of measures taken by the county to keep out prohibited noxious and noxious weeds and plants infested with such as clubroot, saying the county did not have a cleaning station or consequences for violators.
“That’s not true,” Jane Fulton, the county’s manager of agricultural services, responded. “If we find out we ask them to clean (the equipment) right away.”
The county also conducts random inspections, she said.
During a final presentation for the Farmers’ Advocate office, speaker Carol Goodfellow announced that Cliff Munroe had been appointed about five days earlier to the position of Farmers’ Advocate.
Formed in 2005, CMAG’s membership includes about 15 landowners and residents, the ERCB, Apache Canada, Angle Energy, Bonavista Petroleum, Pengrowth, Taqa North, Nova, TransCanada Pipelines and Husky Energy, MVC and Olds College.
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