The families of Tilston, Man., have seen the Oscar-nominated movie Erin Brockovich, starring Julia Roberts as a buxom single mother who wins a record-large settlement for small-town folk made sick by environmental contaminants.
They have noticed the similarities between that story and their struggle to get officials to recognize that emissions from nearby oil batteries have made them sick.
But unlike the families in Erin Brockovich, they are not suing for compensation.
They’ve launched a court action they hope will require oil companies to apply for environmental licences in a bid to force the provincial government to look at their problems.
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The families, along with a local support group called Group Advocating Safe Petroleum Emissions of Canada Inc., are working with lawyer Michael Conner of the Public Interest Law Centre. The case may come before a judge as early as April 9.
“We’re looking for Michael to get some cleavage,” said Wendy Anderson, referring to Julia Roberts’ character in the movie.
For years, Anderson and her family have felt sick, and they say it occurs when the wind blows hydrogen sulfide from an oil battery near their farm near Tilston.
The group brought photos of Anderson’s husband Jim to the news conference.
Taken in January, the photos showed him with raw, red bruises across his cheekbones, just below the bags under his eyes. Hundreds of red pinpricks dotted the insides of his forearms.
Wendy Anderson said these are the symptoms he feels after a small spike in emissions that are within provincial guidelines. They pass after a few days.
“I’m thinking those guidelines are not safe for us,” she said.
Anderson believes her family suffers from increased sensitivity to hydrogen sulfide because of unknown exposure between 1993 and 1997, before the province brought in emissions guidelines and began monitoring the problem.
Other residents have intense head-aches, feel dizzy or lethargic, or experience breathing problems.
“We know we’re right, and our bodies tell us we’re right,” Anderson said.
However, she said there’s no scientific proof that their exposure is making them sick.
Without that proof, they’ve been advised they are “too poor and too old” to undergo the onerous process of suing for damages.
In January, the province released a report from Allen Kraut, a specialist in occupational and environmental medicine from the University of Manitoba.
Kraut found that hydrogen sulfide emissions have likely caused temporary, short-term health impacts in residents, but that the problems weren’t likely to be permanent if emissions stayed within provincial guidelines.
With the poor farm economy, the families are struggling to pay for the costs of the lawsuit, along with added costs of being sick and having to keep livestock away from their farm.
But Anderson said they are forging ahead, partly because other families in the community are starting to get sick too.
Conner said the group has asked the government numerous times to delve deeper into the environmental impacts of oil batteries, to no avail.
He argues the province’s Environment Act requires all major developments to have an environmental licence, and go through a rigorous assessment process.
Conner noted the group doesn’t want to shut down the oil industry. Rather, it wants the government to examine emissions standards, make guidelines laws and monitor emissions.
At a March 19 news conference, group members were accompanied by Manson Moir, a reeve from the area, who supports the families in their mission to get more formal safety measures in place.
“They’re good, honest people,” Moir said, explaining he has helped the families deal with the government and try to work through the process because he doesn’t want to see families flee the area.
As a local government official, Moir said he feels some responsibility when he meets Wendy and she can’t look at him straight because of her headaches, or when bruises mar Jim’s face.
“I get mad then,” Moir said.
“I don’t very often get mad.”
