Post by coolplanet on Aug 1, 2013 20:16:53 GMT -5
Cold Lake Oil Spill Leaking For Months
Emma Pullman
Published: July 25, 2013, 9:38 am
Updated: 3 days ago
o.canada.com/2013/07/25/oil-spill-alberta-underground/
Underground oil spills at an Alberta oilsands operation have been going on much longer than previously thought, according to new documents. Files released to the Toronto Star show the spills were discovered nine weeks ago, but new documents show that bitumen has been leaking since the winter.
Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. operates the Primrose oilsands facility three hours northeast of Edmonton where four ongoing underground oil blowouts have contaminated forest, muskeg, a lake and have already killed dozens animals including beavers, ducks and birds. According to a government scientist who has been to the site, neither government or industry are able to stop the spills.
An engineering field visit conducted by CNRL in June to examine impacts from one of the four spills show oil staining over two feet up the trunks of trees, and some completely coated in oil. And based on winter snow coverage, CNRL itself estimates that oil has been leaking for over four months.
The first two underground spills began on May 20 and according to an incident report filed by CNRL, the oil plume was about 200-feet long. The third incident was reported on June 8, but documents suggest the oil has been leaking for months longer.
The Alberta Energy Regulator first put out its first press release about any of the spills on June 27 in response to a fourth spill at Primrose South over a body of water. It was not until July 18 that the Regulator reported all four spills, nine weeks after the first spill was reported.
Then the Alberta Energy Regulator was asked why it failed to notify the public following the first three spills, AER spokesman Bob Curran said, “The first three incidents were quite small compared to this last one. There were no public impacts, there were negligible environmental impacts. No real trigger to put out a news release.”
This contradicts the Energy Resources Conservation Board (now the AER) who ordered CNRL to “immediately suspend steam injection operations at Primrose East” on June 14, ”given the potential environmental risks” of the first three spills.
In order to resume operations, CNRL has to file a written application and receive written approval from the ERCB’s Oil Sands and Coal Branch with a “thorough assessment of the potential environmental risks associated with recommencing steam injection, any risk mitigation measures proposed, and any alternatives to the proposed steam injection operations.”
A full steaming restriction was allegedly proposed at Primrose South, the location of the most recent spill, but steaming was restricted within one kilometre of the spill on July 18. According to AER spokesperson Bob Curran, “[Primrose] South and North are more established and don’t have any previous incidents” which explains why they chose to not completely suspend steaming at Primrose South.
CNRL’s Primrose East and South operations use an “in situ” or underground extraction technology called Cyclical Steam Stimulation or CSS, which involves injecting millions of gallons of 300-degree steam hundreds of feet into the ground through a single wellhead for weeks or months in order to heat and liquefy the hard bitumen which is then pumped out.
According to publicly available AER documents filed by the company, CNRL had 18 reportable spills in 2012 in addition to 18 confirmed well casing failures in 2012.
CNRL’s investor relations department stated in an earlier email, “Canadian Natural conducts all our operations in a way that strives to identify, minimize and mitigate harm to the health and safety of employees, contractors, the public and the environment.”
New revelations that CNRL’s spills have been ongoing since the winter have emerged just a day after a report revealed that between 1996 and 2013, only 0.9 per cent of all environmental legislation violations in the oilsands were subject to any kind of enforcement.
Critics are now looking for answers about the spills. How long have they been going on? Why have local First Nations and the public been kept in the dark? And finally: Isn’t it time for a full examination of the dangers of CSS and in-situ oilsands production to measure and understand its real impacts?
As industry and government scratch their heads about the identity of scientist who leaked the documents, the scientist notes, “I really hope I don’t lose my job, but I really felt that this was too important to sit on.”
Emma Pullman
Published: July 25, 2013, 9:38 am
Updated: 3 days ago
o.canada.com/2013/07/25/oil-spill-alberta-underground/
Underground oil spills at an Alberta oilsands operation have been going on much longer than previously thought, according to new documents. Files released to the Toronto Star show the spills were discovered nine weeks ago, but new documents show that bitumen has been leaking since the winter.
Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. operates the Primrose oilsands facility three hours northeast of Edmonton where four ongoing underground oil blowouts have contaminated forest, muskeg, a lake and have already killed dozens animals including beavers, ducks and birds. According to a government scientist who has been to the site, neither government or industry are able to stop the spills.
An engineering field visit conducted by CNRL in June to examine impacts from one of the four spills show oil staining over two feet up the trunks of trees, and some completely coated in oil. And based on winter snow coverage, CNRL itself estimates that oil has been leaking for over four months.
The first two underground spills began on May 20 and according to an incident report filed by CNRL, the oil plume was about 200-feet long. The third incident was reported on June 8, but documents suggest the oil has been leaking for months longer.
The Alberta Energy Regulator first put out its first press release about any of the spills on June 27 in response to a fourth spill at Primrose South over a body of water. It was not until July 18 that the Regulator reported all four spills, nine weeks after the first spill was reported.
Then the Alberta Energy Regulator was asked why it failed to notify the public following the first three spills, AER spokesman Bob Curran said, “The first three incidents were quite small compared to this last one. There were no public impacts, there were negligible environmental impacts. No real trigger to put out a news release.”
This contradicts the Energy Resources Conservation Board (now the AER) who ordered CNRL to “immediately suspend steam injection operations at Primrose East” on June 14, ”given the potential environmental risks” of the first three spills.
In order to resume operations, CNRL has to file a written application and receive written approval from the ERCB’s Oil Sands and Coal Branch with a “thorough assessment of the potential environmental risks associated with recommencing steam injection, any risk mitigation measures proposed, and any alternatives to the proposed steam injection operations.”
A full steaming restriction was allegedly proposed at Primrose South, the location of the most recent spill, but steaming was restricted within one kilometre of the spill on July 18. According to AER spokesperson Bob Curran, “[Primrose] South and North are more established and don’t have any previous incidents” which explains why they chose to not completely suspend steaming at Primrose South.
CNRL’s Primrose East and South operations use an “in situ” or underground extraction technology called Cyclical Steam Stimulation or CSS, which involves injecting millions of gallons of 300-degree steam hundreds of feet into the ground through a single wellhead for weeks or months in order to heat and liquefy the hard bitumen which is then pumped out.
According to publicly available AER documents filed by the company, CNRL had 18 reportable spills in 2012 in addition to 18 confirmed well casing failures in 2012.
CNRL’s investor relations department stated in an earlier email, “Canadian Natural conducts all our operations in a way that strives to identify, minimize and mitigate harm to the health and safety of employees, contractors, the public and the environment.”
New revelations that CNRL’s spills have been ongoing since the winter have emerged just a day after a report revealed that between 1996 and 2013, only 0.9 per cent of all environmental legislation violations in the oilsands were subject to any kind of enforcement.
Critics are now looking for answers about the spills. How long have they been going on? Why have local First Nations and the public been kept in the dark? And finally: Isn’t it time for a full examination of the dangers of CSS and in-situ oilsands production to measure and understand its real impacts?
As industry and government scratch their heads about the identity of scientist who leaked the documents, the scientist notes, “I really hope I don’t lose my job, but I really felt that this was too important to sit on.”