Alberta Environment officials have taken samples from wells after Shawn and Ronalie Campbell complained at a recent news conference the government has done little to help find out how gas contaminated their water well.
Andrew Horton, an Alberta Environment spokesperson, said the government hopes tests of gas and water wells last week near the Ponoka-area farm will isolate the cause of the contaminated drinking water.
“We’re taking this very seriously,” said Horton. “Hopefully we will get this resolved soon.”
Ronalie Campbell said four companies have already sampled water from their well since it became contaminated 18 months ago and have identified methane, ethane, propane, butane and pentane in their drinking water. The explosive gases have been identified as coming from deep production gas zones.
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Campbell said they weren’t notified the province was sampling water from nearby water and gas wells, but noticed government trucks in the area and asked to watch the process.
“We were not supposed to be included, but my husband asked permission to go on site,” said Ronalie.
“We were never included in the loop,” she said. “We’re victims in this situation and we’re the last ones to get any information.”
Ronalie said they hope the latest tests will lead the government to provide safe drinking water for their home and their cattle.
“We want to know if they plan on taking any positive action to provide us with safe drinking water,” said Ronalie.
Horton said between Jan. 1, 2004, and April 10, 2007, the environment department received 177 complaints of ground water problems. Only “a couple” have been linked to the energy industry. There have been no links to ground water contamination from coalbed methane, he said.
Ronalie said it costs about $250,000 to fix a leaking energy well, a lot of money for most farmers, but about 20 days production for energy companies.
“That’s not bringing them to their knees. It’s asking them to be responsible.”
