Between gaps in information, the steady corrosion of well plugs and the lack of risk monitoring, Ontario is facing a crisis
chen wang and john sopinski/the globe and mail, Source:Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry
A pontoon collects data from Mr. Edwards’s creek this past February, when researchers from McGill University visited Norfolk County to measure gas levels. Crude from Ontario’s first commercial field still flows today, though production has shrunk from those first gushers to a dribble, down to just 500 barrels a day. That’s less than 0.1 per cent of total Canadian oil production.
The government report recommended ramping up decommissioning efforts to complete 40 to 50 of wells a year, saying that’s about how many “create an immediate hazard” such as potential contamination of drinking water aquifers. Scott Grant, a volunteer safety advocate with PEGO, says members have spent the past few years raising concerns about oil and gas wells with Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry managers and numerous ministers. They have repeatedly flagged increasing risks to public safety from improperly abandoned wells and the migration of explosive and toxic gases around southwestern Ontario.
Aug. 26, 2021, was a day of disaster for Wheatley, Ont., when a gas explosion destroyed a downtown pub, shown in a bystander’s video shared with CTV. It's suspected H2S and methane were leaking from a nearby old well. orphan wells in the province. That includes 1,867 wells where there is no record of the operator, and 4,921 that still have an operator listed in the database but their well status is unknown . There are 636 wells for which their owners were found to have filed for insolvency, The Globe’s research shows.
Operators or licensees are responsible for risk reporting in Western provinces, but the fact so many wells in Ontario do not have an active operator makes risk assessments difficult. Ontario’s Abandoned Works Program is administered by the MNRF. Started in 2005, the ministry has spent about $23-million on the program to plug about 380 wells. Landowners must apply to the program, which covers oil or gas wells drilled before 1963 that are visible from the surface and have no current operator.
Being lumped with a clean-up bill that will likely run into tens of thousands of dollars for a pre-existing problem is what happened to Mr. Edwards back in Norfolk County, whose land is slipping into a creek around an old gas well. Mr. Edwards has been fighting to access provincial funds to clean it up through Ontario’s Abandoned Works Program, to no avail. He contends, with the backing of reports from experts, that the problem started after MNRF and the Ministry of Environment plugged a relief well in March 2015 on 10th Concession Road near Silver Hill – not far from Mr. Edwards’ place.
“I’m hoping that they’re going to just see the light here and realize that the best thing for them to do is just fix this well under the [Abandoned Works] program.” Their neighbour, Paula Jongerden, is also worried about her health. She won’t ride her horses at the back of her property, where the smell of H2S often makes her eyes water and feel sick to her stomach. The toxic substance irritates eyes and airways at low levels, and causes headaches, dizziness and lungs to fill with fluid at higher concentrations.
He believes the government must pay more attention to cleaning up abandoned oil and gas wells, and proposed a nationwide federal-provincial orphan well program that would see specific funds and expertise directed to the issue. Ministry spokesman Hayden Kenez said the minister and other MNRF officials met recently with Ms. Chopp and a delegation from Norfolk County to discuss the issue of abandoned gas wells. Mr. Kenez said the “conversation was productive” and that the ministry is committed to working with Norfolk and other affected municipalities to deal with the issue.
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