Saskatchewan model suggested | Manitoba farmer wants the government to publish locations, volume and cause on a database
The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers says the public has the right to know about oil spills, which is why it supports publishing spill data in Manitoba.
This winter a pipeline broke under a field near Cromer, Man., spilling an estimated 100,000 litres onto the soil and potentially into the surrounding watershed.
Despite the size of the spill, locals learned about it via word of mouth and other Manitoba residents didn’t hear much about it because the media didn’t pick up on the story.
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Carlyle Jorgensen, a farmer who owns land near the spill site, wants the provincial government to publish a list of spills so citizens know what is happening on the landscape.
Jorgensen would like the province to adopt an approach similar to Sask-atchewan, which publishes the Upstream Oil and Gas Spill Database on its website.
The database, which goes back to 1990, lists the product spilled, an estimate of volume, location, cause and the company responsible.
David Pryce, CAPP vice-president of operations, said the public should have access to information.
“The notion of spill data being available and transparent, I think that’s an expectation of the public,” Pryce said. “We certainly would have no concerns if that data was available to the public…. It’s in our best interest, frankly, that the public have confidence that things are being managed properly.”
The Manitoba government, which didn’t provide comment for this story, publishes a weekly well activity report through its petroleum branch, which provides data on new well licences, new wells drilled, well abandonment and other statistics but nothing on reported spills.
As well, a statistics page on the petroleum branch website offers detailed data on the number of horizontal wells drilled in a particular year, the metres drilled and the number of wells in operation, but again, no data on spills.
Besides concerns over spills, a number of landowners in western Manitoba, including farmer Eldon Boon of Virden, would like the oil industry to remove and remediate abandoned wells more rapidly.
Pryce said companies are reluctant to remove wells and pipelines because the infrastructure could be useful for future oil and gas extraction.
“Companies don’t want to relinquish that asset if they think there is still hydrocarbons in the ground.”
Pryce said the well could also be used for other functions.
“If there is a wellhead there, they could turn that into a disposal well.”
He said CAPP hasn’t directly heard complaints from landowners in southwestern Manitoba about grievances with the oil industry, but the industry and government have a responsibility to listen and respond to concerns if there are issues.
“The companies, for the most part, want to hear from the landowner,” he said. “That communication should be part of the business practice.”
