Treehugger - Latest Comments in Alberta Oil & Gas Collateral Damage: She Can Light Her Water on Fire

Re: Alberta Oil & Gas Collateral Damage: She Can Light Her Water on Fire

Michael Richards — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 11:06:16 -0000

1 billion of groundwater? First of all, you have no units. Second of all, please send me the research paper you got this information from. Otherwise please stop submitting falsified information around the internet trying to scare people into believing you.

Re: Alberta Oil & Gas Collateral Damage: She Can Light Her Water on Fire

Michael Richards — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 11:04:17 -0000

I agree with you from a purely economical standpoint, however governments in a democratic country are dictated by the will of the people. If you get enough people against something, it is politically contradictory to continue forward because your probably going to get ejected from office (if not assassinated / killed).

Re: Alberta Oil & Gas Collateral Damage: She Can Light Her Water on Fire

Michael Richards — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 11:02:14 -0000

You're a goddamned hippie. Get your mind out of the 60s and realize this world has demands that need to be met. and if you want to be taken seriously I suggest you stop talking to absent mindedly about other peoples opinions and take into account that they have just as much leeway as you do. Respect; you need to go find some.

Aside from the rudeness of your comment, she runs a business. I commend her for that. That's 300X better than what every other person in USA / Canada who is currently "occupying" the streets is doing because they decided to professionalize in an area with absolutely no jobs. I take great pride in telling you that your neighbors are also people who are employed by these oil companies, who eat and maintain their lifestyles by the bounty they produce in both monetary and energy means. Look around your house my friend, everything is related to petroleum in one for or another I GUARANTEE you.

Drilling is not toxic. Drilling has been going on in many forms for years. when the proper precautions are taken, nothing is harmed and people get the materials we need to maintain lifestyles. and for a short economics lesson, supply comes from demand. If people stop wanting these things, then they'll stop being produced.

Re: Alberta Oil & Gas Collateral Damage: She Can Light Her Water on Fire

Ron — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 08:58:35 -0000

For all who don't believe that Alberta water is getting more contaminated everyday by oil and gas exploration, I hate to burst your naiive bubble. We have several investigative reports written by experts, and commissioned by our government, that say our water is contaminated with methane, ethane, propane, butane and sour gas. This has not always been there. It is contamination of aquifers. Do you think you can put a bunch of pipes into formations, blast the heck out of them and not get gas coming to surface or into fractured zones containing wate? Wake up Alberta, soon everyone will be able to light your taps on fire, and have your families on inhalers, then maybe you'll pay attention to these people who are working to try to show you what the future holds if you don't do something.

Re: Alberta Oil & Gas Collateral Damage: She Can Light Her Water on Fire

Randal M — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 18:45:04 -0000

It quite obvious to me that you live in a place that has clean water. The problem with "Fracking" is that it can effect everyone eventually. One Fracking well can contaminate up to 100 billion of ground water. What do you have to say about this when all the ground water is irreversibly contaminated? We should focus on solutions and I agree not complain.

Re: Alberta Oil & Gas Collateral Damage: She Can Light Her Water on Fire

Jay — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 07:55:43 -0000

anyone tell you you're a joke, before?

Re: Alberta Oil & Gas Collateral Damage: She Can Light Her Water on Fire

jojo — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 14:35:05 -0000

Just shut up and pay your taxes. Your government is doing its best and all people can do is complain. There are other ways to get your water.
People just want to complain. Enough.This is a natural occurrence.

Re: Alberta Oil & Gas Collateral Damage: She Can Light Her Water on Fire

Rock Fossil — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 21:34:27 -0000

Dean- They're getting ready to Hydro-Frack the great lakes starting with Erie under which the largest shale deposit in the world(Marcellus) sits!
the bill is already in Albany and they are moving forward to poison the largest fresh water system in the world!

Re: Alberta Oil & Gas Collateral Damage: She Can Light Her Water on Fire

B. Dobson — Sat, 22 May 2010 00:56:36 -0000

Maybe you should drill for oil and have your water piped in.

Re: Alberta Oil & Gas Collateral Damage: She Can Light Her Water on Fire

Dean — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 00:10:09 -0000

"A company report from 2005, for instance, shows that EnCana fraced the underground aquifer where area landowners get their water" ?!!

What is any company doing exploring near an aquifer? What kind of morons run the Alberta government? How could anyone risk messing up the water supply?

Encana should be responsible for a new water supply for that town. Maybe a class action lawsuit, or a higher court (outside of Alberta) could get some justice?

Re: Alberta Oil & Gas Collateral Damage: She Can Light Her Water on Fire

ashley — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 14:53:04 -0000

dude

Re: Alberta Oil & Gas Collateral Damage: She Can Light Her Water on Fire

Doug — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 18:55:25 -0000

Really doesn't make sense that a company would spend the money to fracture a non-paying zone. Strange things can and do happen, deep under foot. There's always a chance that nearby exploration and production polluted the water. Generally it's up to the authority with oversight to prove it. In the event it's proven, the producer is responsible for repairing the problem and cleaning up any resulting pollution.

I don't understand why if the gas is a natural occurrence, it wasn't discovered before. I suspect that drilling created a condition that allowed communication between the gas and water formations. The devil is in proving it. Where the authority has declared the gas as naturally occurring, they may not be investigating further

Re: Alberta Oil & Gas Collateral Damage: She Can Light Her Water on Fire

johnsmith — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 09:21:47 -0000

I don't care what anybody or entity says. The earth is a living being & is finite. The current method of so called "energy" extraction/production what-have-you is money-oriented, not energy oriented. If drilling wasn't happening nearby, then there would be no story. Regardless, ALL the ways which we power our wasteful western lifestyles is not just harmful to the very being which supports our pathetic lives but in the end harmful to all life period. I could care less how many precautions are taken, drilling is toxic.

So you own a company that works with Encana. You could care less what anybody says because you are not interested in the environment much less in energy. You are simply interested in continuing what you yourself would like to do, and that is entirely based on a dollar sign.

Take a firefighter's or a police officer's paycheck away and you are left with someone who could care less.

Re: Alberta Oil & Gas Collateral Damage: She Can Light Her Water on Fire

touchhacker — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 17:55:33 -0000

wow that is wierd

Re: Alberta Oil & Gas Collateral Damage: She Can Light Her Water on Fire

Anonymous — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 10:54:48 -0000

crap

Re: Alberta Oil & Gas Collateral Damage: She Can Light Her Water on Fire

Brandon Zylstra — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 11:40:53 -0000

"As previously stated, this is common and if the property owners don't like the situation, they should consider leaving as they don't have any other options."

Only through reading the comments have I been able to get a grasp of how likely it is that this is EnCana's fault. It appears to me that this *is* likely a result of their drilling, although there is sufficient doubt raised by (for instance) the claim of the person who worked in the area 30 years ago, and saw people burning off water then.

Either way, the person DOES have another option besides moving away. Even if, as you imply (and others dispute), there is no legal recourse (which would be bad, because allowing companies to contaminate people's wells and then telling the people 'too bad you're screwed' is not exactly what a just society should allow) she certainly has recourse to publicize this and damage EnCana's reputation.

If it is their fault, then she is entirely justified in doing this. If her water has always been like this but she's just seizing on the opportunity, then she is an evil person.

But it's hard for those of us who are geographically and intellectually removed from the situation to know for sure which is the case.

Re: Alberta Oil & Gas Collateral Damage: She Can Light Her Water on Fire

HealingMindN — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 20:15:55 -0000

Is there any question now that the world needs to move to clean, sustainable energy technology rather than the big, nasty dark age energy technology? Car makers could have made the switch to clean energy engines long ago if they weren't deep in cahoots with big oil. If Our Gov'ts are willing to subsidize digital TV receivers, they should be willing to subsidize technology that helps save money and the environment.

Re: Alberta Oil & Gas Collateral Damage: She Can Light Her Water on Fire

alyssa — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 02:09:10 -0000

by the way this women should really look into surface and mineral rights!!!! she could make a lot of money if she owns them on her property and could move to somewhere else. these gases are naturally occurring in the earth and any movement of the plates could have caused this. not saying that that movement wasn't caused by the frac... just saying...

Re: Alberta Oil & Gas Collateral Damage: She Can Light Her Water on Fire

alyssa — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 01:51:37 -0000

guess all you guys should quit using that natural gas to power your water heaters and heat your homes if you have such a problem with it. my husband and i own a oil and natural gas company that works for Encana. In our experience Encana has the strongest environmental and safety policies of any oil company on the Western Slope of Colorado. (and there are many out here) There are consequences of drilling but, until you all are completely off of fossil fuels lets not judge companies and industries you aren't familiar with...

Re: Alberta Oil & Gas Collateral Damage: She Can Light Her Water on Fire

Brentski — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 20:05:33 -0000

where is Erin Brockevich when you need her?!?!

Re: Alberta Oil & Gas Collateral Damage: She Can Light Her Water on Fire

OrganicCat — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 16:08:56 -0000

@Kailen

"I would say that this article is biased"

The article simply reported the facts, and didn't draw it's own conclusions so...no. Just no.

"If a barrier was broken that allowed cross contamination of the aquifer, I don't believe the company would be liable or that the property owners have any right to extract or use the natural gas""

No again. The company didn't get rights for everyone's land as evidenced by the full article and cross contamination into a water supply is guaranteed to get you in legal trouble. I really don't know where you're coming from expecting basically a full pardon for things that are in fact, in clear violation of every set standard for drilling and the fact they are contaminating water sources directly.

Re: Alberta Oil & Gas Collateral Damage: She Can Light Her Water on Fire

Kailen — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 15:52:09 -0000

Please do some research on natural gas. You will find that it is a variable soup of hydrocarbons containing large fractions of methane and ethane as well as smaller fractions of heavier hydrocarbons. Considering the unjustified leap between the hydrocarbons and the drilling, I would say that this article is biased.

Additionally, ownership of the hydrocarbons (natural gas) is determined by mineral rights, not property ownership. If a barrier was broken that allowed cross contamination of the aquifer, I don't believe the company would be liable or that the property owners have any right to extract or use the natural gas.

As previously stated, this is common and if the property owners don't like the situation, they should consider leaving as they don't have any other options.

Re: Alberta Oil & Gas Collateral Damage: She Can Light Her Water on Fire

brian — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 01:40:15 -0000

I saw farmers about 30 miles east of Rosebud with their water wells rigged up to trap the gas to burn when I was working in the area over 30 years ago. Im sure that there was probably hydrocarbon contamination in the waer then, but it never seemed to be much of a problem before.

Re: Alberta Oil & Gas Collateral Damage: She Can Light Her Water on Fire

Debbie — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 15:08:01 -0000

Actually, I like how restrained treehugger was with this story,

Other sites would have gone all sensationalistic, and pointed fingers.

Here we have: This is what happened, and then quotes from the news items. Just reporting what is known and condensing it, so good job.

Re: Alberta Oil & Gas Collateral Damage: She Can Light Her Water on Fire

Shawn — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 14:57:02 -0000

This isn't the first thing I've heard like this. Look up Petrolia, PA for a story about how the entire town can no longer use their water. I've been there and saw the local convenience store with racks of 5 gallon bottles to supply the coffee and soda machines. Really weird setup. Looks like the town was built around the refinery, so what can you expect.