Sask. family demands answers on carbon capture and storage risks
[ http://www.ecojustice.ca/media-centre/p ... rage-risks ]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Jan 11, 2011 08:51 AM
Independent research links bubbling, foaming water and animal carcasses to CO2 leakage
Jan 11, 2011
REGINA — A Saskatchewan family has demanded a full public investigation of documented problems on its Weyburn property, located on top of a Cenovus Energy carbon capture and storage site, in light of independent research that indicates unnaturally high levels of CO2 in the area’s soil.
Cameron and Jane Kerr first noticed changes in surface water and well water on their property in 2004, one year after CO2 injections in the area began, and reported these incidents to the Saskatchewan Ministry of Energy and Resources.
Disturbances included bubbling and foaming water, unusual algae growths in ponds and animal carcasses found strewn around the ponds.
“Cenovus Energy and the Saskatchewan Ministry of Energy and Resources failed to properly monitor and investigate the possibility of a CO2 leak during the last six years,” said Ecojustice staff lawyer Barry Robinson, who is advising the Kerrs. “Furthermore, they left the Kerrs in the position of having to prove there was a problem when it was the ministry’s duty to investigate releases from oil and gas activities.”
Cenovus, the ministry and the Kerrs agreed in the fall 2007 that the ministry would conduct a year-long investigation into soil, water and air quality on the Kerrs’ property. The ministry took water and air samples on a single day in July 2008. They did not test for CO2.
Since then, both Cenovus and the ministry have refused to conduct further studies on the property. A petroleum geologist assisting the Kerrs suggested that CO2 leakage could be occurring through faults and fractures or through abandoned oil and gas wells.
In July 2010, the Kerrs retained Petro-Find GeoChem, a Saskatoon-based consulting company, to conduct soil gas studies on their property.
Petro-Find Geochem found unusually high CO2 and methane levels in the soil on the property. An analysis of the measured CO2 done by a research laboratory at the University of Saskatchewan clearly indicated that the leaking CO2 is not naturally occurring and is similar in composition to the CO2 injected in the Weyburn field.
Should Cenovus and the ministry refuse to conduct a full investigation in the face of credible evidence linking the disturbances on the Kerr property to the carbon capture site, the Kerrs will seek legal action.
“It’s clear something is amiss here, and it’s clear that the ministry must take responsibility and conduct a full-scale investigation of the impacts carbon capture and storage has on the surrounding environment,” Robinson said.
“Carbon capture and storage — especially as carried out on the Cenovus site — is not a risk-free silver bullet solution to combating greenhouse gas emissions.” -30-
Video slideshow
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMWpeTACAgo
Contacts:
Barry Robinson, staff lawyer | Ecojustice
403-830-2032
For other inquiries, please contact:
Kimberly Shearon, communications associate | Ecojustice
604-685-5618 x242
Related content
Case Cenovus carbon capture and storage investigation
http://www.ecojustice.ca/cases/
cenovus-carbon-capture-and-storage-investigation
File Kerr Site History
http://www.ecojustice.ca/media-centre/m ... ase-files/
kerr-site-history/at_download/file
File Petro-Find Geochem Ltd. report
http://www.ecojustice.ca/media-centre/m ... ase-files/
petro-find-geochem-ltd.-report/at_download/file
Sask. family demands answers on carbon capture and storage r
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• Page 1 of 1
Sask. family demands answers on carbon capture and storage r
by Oscar » Mon Feb 07, 2011 6:50 pm
Last edited by Oscar on Fri Aug 30, 2013 10:29 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Reported Weyburn carbon capture project failure is bad news
by Oscar » Mon Feb 07, 2011 6:58 pm
Reported Weyburn carbon capture project failure is bad news for the world
http://communities.canada.com/vancouversun/blogs/
innovation/archive/2011/01/11/reported-weyburn-carbon-capture-project-failure-is-bad-news-for-the-world.aspx
By Scott Simpson 11 Jan 2011
A Saskatchewan report that the world's first commercial carbon capture project is failing could be grave news for those involved in efforts to blunt humanity's contribution to climate change.
It's a story with global implications, potentially bad ones, for the energy sector.
A farm couple whose property sits over a Cenovus oilfield in Weyburn, Sask. which is supposed to be serving as the permanent storage site for more than 15 million tonnes of carbon dioxide - on Tuesday released a consultant's report which says the CO2 is leaking into their soil.
The Weyburn project, which has received millions of dollars in government funding and is owned by Cenovus Energy, has been trumpted for a decade as the international flagship for technology that would allow the continued use of fossil fuels including coal and natural gas without adverse environmental impacts.
According to Canadian Press reports on the web site of the Winnipeg Free Press, the couple paid for the report themselves after the Saskatchewan government - which derives an increasingly significant portion of its revenue from the oil and gas industry - ignored their request for an investigation.
A disturbing part of this story is that the couple have reportedly been complaining about the situation - including carbonation in pond water and explosions on their land - since 2006.
Carbon dioxide and its equivalent gases, emitted during industrial processes, have been identified by the international scientific community as primary accelerators of climate change - including increased weather volatility, ocean acidification, flooding and drought.
Coal and gas fired electricity generation plants, as well as gas and oil processing facilities, are among the world's largest producers of carbon dioxide.
Finding a way to capture and store those CO2 emissions, rather than dump them into the atmosphere, is considered an essential step in development of new fossil fuel-derived resources - such as coal-fired electricity for both the developing world as well as replacement of aging coal generating plants in Canada, the United States, and elsewhere.
Governments around the world, along with multinational corporate partners in the fossil fuel industry, are spending billions of dollars to research and develop methods to capture carbon dioxide emissions and storing the CO2 in deep underground wells.
The carbon capture and storage project in Weyburn, Saskatchewan, has been cited as a world-leading example of the technology since it commenced operation in 2000, and really the only venue in the world that can offer more than a year or two's worth of evidence that carbon capture can succeed - or fail.
ps, in response to some reader comments, below, I'm adding this clip from story I wrote last year about carbon capture and storage, or CCS:
"At Weyburn we have been operating at a commercial scale for over 10 years so indeed there is commercial scale CCS," Cenovus Energy executive vice-president for environment and strategic planning Judy Fairburn said at a Globe conference panel discussion in Vancouver.
Cenovus -- a subsidiary of EnCana -- has spent more than $1 billion developing the facility, which is sequestering 2.2 million tonnes of CO2 per year, and is the subject of an International Energy Agency audit because it is likely to serve as a global prototype.
"To put the impact further into perspective ... it is effectively similar to a 3,200-megawatt [capacity] wind farm or 2,000 [wind] turbines, or 152 million compact fluorescent light bulbs, or five per cent of the compact fluorescent light bulb market," Fairburn said.
= = = = = = =
Sask. couple demands study be conducted to determine source of alleged CO2 leak
http://www.leaderpost.com/health/
Sask+couple+demands+study+conducted+determine+source+alleged+leak/4093755/story.html
By BRUCE JOHNSTONE, Leader-Post January 11, 2011 6:06 PM
REGINA — A Weyburn-area couple claims contamination from the nearby carbon capture and storage (CCS) project operated by Cenovus Energy has driven them from their home.
At a news conference in Regina on Tuesday, Cameron and Jane Kerr demanded the provincial government and Cenovus conduct a one-year study to determine the source of the alleged C02 contamination — which they claim is hundreds of times above safe levels.
But the Calgary-based company (formerly known as EnCana) and the Energy and Resources ministry maintain the Kerrs' property has been studied numerous times, but the studies failed to show any connection with the world's largest geological CCS project.
The Kerrs, who purchased the property in 1975, claim they noticed changes to the surface and groundwater on their property in 2004, one year after CO2 was injected in the area.
They said they reported the incidents, including bubbling and foaming water and dead animal carcasses near some ponds on their property, to Energy and Resources.
Barry Robinson, a staff lawyer with Ecojustice, a non-profit environmental organization that represents the Kerrs, said the dead animals included a goat, a cat, a duck, and other birds.
"Quite rightly, the Kerrs were concerned about this,'' said Robinson, a Calgary-based lawyer with Ecojustice (formerly known as the Sierra Legal Defence Fund). "In the fall of 2005, the Kerrs moved off the property because they were concerned about potential health effects on themselves.''
Jane Kerr said she suffered from severe headaches, while her husband suffered a heart attack in 2003, although she admitted none of the health effects can be conclusively linked to the CO2 contamination.
Robinson said neither the ministry nor Cenovus have lived up to a 2007 agreement with the Kerrs to conduct a one-year study of the water and air quality on the Kerrs' property.
"That investigation was never conducted,'' Robinson said. "The Ministry of Environment took some water samples and air samples on a single day in 2008 and, on the basis of these samples, concluded that there was no problems on the Kerr property,'' Robinson said.
MORE:
http://www.leaderpost.com/health/
Sask+couple+demands+study+conducted+determine+source+alleged+leak/4093755/story.html
= = = = =
Sask. farmers worried about CO2 leaks
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/saskatchewan/story/
2011/01/11/sk-carbon-complaint-1101.html
Last Updated: Tuesday, January 11, 2011 | 12:56 PM ET The Canadian Press
A Saskatchewan farm couple say greenhouse gases that were supposed to be stored permanently underground are leaking out, killing animals and sending groundwater foaming to the surface like shaken-up soda pop.
Cameron and Jane Kerr, who own land above the Weyburn oilfield in eastern Saskatchewan, have released a consultant's report that claims to link high concentrations of carbon dioxide in their soil to gas injected underground every day.
Energy giant Cenovus injects 8,000 tonnes of the gas every day in an attempt to enhance oil recovery and fight climate change.
Cameron Kerr says ponds on his land have developed algae blooms, clots of foam and scum, while small animals have been found dead a few metres away.
A consultant found high concentrations of carbon dioxide in the soil that matches the carbon dioxide Cenovus has been injecting, he says.
The Saskatchewan NDP government had agreed to conduct a year-long study to find out what was going on, but that hasn't happened since the government changed in 2007.
MORE:
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/saskatchewan/story/
2011/01/11/sk-carbon-complaint-1101.html
http://communities.canada.com/vancouversun/blogs/
innovation/archive/2011/01/11/reported-weyburn-carbon-capture-project-failure-is-bad-news-for-the-world.aspx
By Scott Simpson 11 Jan 2011
A Saskatchewan report that the world's first commercial carbon capture project is failing could be grave news for those involved in efforts to blunt humanity's contribution to climate change.
It's a story with global implications, potentially bad ones, for the energy sector.
A farm couple whose property sits over a Cenovus oilfield in Weyburn, Sask. which is supposed to be serving as the permanent storage site for more than 15 million tonnes of carbon dioxide - on Tuesday released a consultant's report which says the CO2 is leaking into their soil.
The Weyburn project, which has received millions of dollars in government funding and is owned by Cenovus Energy, has been trumpted for a decade as the international flagship for technology that would allow the continued use of fossil fuels including coal and natural gas without adverse environmental impacts.
According to Canadian Press reports on the web site of the Winnipeg Free Press, the couple paid for the report themselves after the Saskatchewan government - which derives an increasingly significant portion of its revenue from the oil and gas industry - ignored their request for an investigation.
A disturbing part of this story is that the couple have reportedly been complaining about the situation - including carbonation in pond water and explosions on their land - since 2006.
Carbon dioxide and its equivalent gases, emitted during industrial processes, have been identified by the international scientific community as primary accelerators of climate change - including increased weather volatility, ocean acidification, flooding and drought.
Coal and gas fired electricity generation plants, as well as gas and oil processing facilities, are among the world's largest producers of carbon dioxide.
Finding a way to capture and store those CO2 emissions, rather than dump them into the atmosphere, is considered an essential step in development of new fossil fuel-derived resources - such as coal-fired electricity for both the developing world as well as replacement of aging coal generating plants in Canada, the United States, and elsewhere.
Governments around the world, along with multinational corporate partners in the fossil fuel industry, are spending billions of dollars to research and develop methods to capture carbon dioxide emissions and storing the CO2 in deep underground wells.
The carbon capture and storage project in Weyburn, Saskatchewan, has been cited as a world-leading example of the technology since it commenced operation in 2000, and really the only venue in the world that can offer more than a year or two's worth of evidence that carbon capture can succeed - or fail.
ps, in response to some reader comments, below, I'm adding this clip from story I wrote last year about carbon capture and storage, or CCS:
"At Weyburn we have been operating at a commercial scale for over 10 years so indeed there is commercial scale CCS," Cenovus Energy executive vice-president for environment and strategic planning Judy Fairburn said at a Globe conference panel discussion in Vancouver.
Cenovus -- a subsidiary of EnCana -- has spent more than $1 billion developing the facility, which is sequestering 2.2 million tonnes of CO2 per year, and is the subject of an International Energy Agency audit because it is likely to serve as a global prototype.
"To put the impact further into perspective ... it is effectively similar to a 3,200-megawatt [capacity] wind farm or 2,000 [wind] turbines, or 152 million compact fluorescent light bulbs, or five per cent of the compact fluorescent light bulb market," Fairburn said.
= = = = = = =
Sask. couple demands study be conducted to determine source of alleged CO2 leak
http://www.leaderpost.com/health/
Sask+couple+demands+study+conducted+determine+source+alleged+leak/4093755/story.html
By BRUCE JOHNSTONE, Leader-Post January 11, 2011 6:06 PM
REGINA — A Weyburn-area couple claims contamination from the nearby carbon capture and storage (CCS) project operated by Cenovus Energy has driven them from their home.
At a news conference in Regina on Tuesday, Cameron and Jane Kerr demanded the provincial government and Cenovus conduct a one-year study to determine the source of the alleged C02 contamination — which they claim is hundreds of times above safe levels.
But the Calgary-based company (formerly known as EnCana) and the Energy and Resources ministry maintain the Kerrs' property has been studied numerous times, but the studies failed to show any connection with the world's largest geological CCS project.
The Kerrs, who purchased the property in 1975, claim they noticed changes to the surface and groundwater on their property in 2004, one year after CO2 was injected in the area.
They said they reported the incidents, including bubbling and foaming water and dead animal carcasses near some ponds on their property, to Energy and Resources.
Barry Robinson, a staff lawyer with Ecojustice, a non-profit environmental organization that represents the Kerrs, said the dead animals included a goat, a cat, a duck, and other birds.
"Quite rightly, the Kerrs were concerned about this,'' said Robinson, a Calgary-based lawyer with Ecojustice (formerly known as the Sierra Legal Defence Fund). "In the fall of 2005, the Kerrs moved off the property because they were concerned about potential health effects on themselves.''
Jane Kerr said she suffered from severe headaches, while her husband suffered a heart attack in 2003, although she admitted none of the health effects can be conclusively linked to the CO2 contamination.
Robinson said neither the ministry nor Cenovus have lived up to a 2007 agreement with the Kerrs to conduct a one-year study of the water and air quality on the Kerrs' property.
"That investigation was never conducted,'' Robinson said. "The Ministry of Environment took some water samples and air samples on a single day in 2008 and, on the basis of these samples, concluded that there was no problems on the Kerr property,'' Robinson said.
MORE:
http://www.leaderpost.com/health/
Sask+couple+demands+study+conducted+determine+source+alleged+leak/4093755/story.html
= = = = =
Sask. farmers worried about CO2 leaks
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/saskatchewan/story/
2011/01/11/sk-carbon-complaint-1101.html
Last Updated: Tuesday, January 11, 2011 | 12:56 PM ET The Canadian Press
A Saskatchewan farm couple say greenhouse gases that were supposed to be stored permanently underground are leaking out, killing animals and sending groundwater foaming to the surface like shaken-up soda pop.
Cameron and Jane Kerr, who own land above the Weyburn oilfield in eastern Saskatchewan, have released a consultant's report that claims to link high concentrations of carbon dioxide in their soil to gas injected underground every day.
Energy giant Cenovus injects 8,000 tonnes of the gas every day in an attempt to enhance oil recovery and fight climate change.
Cameron Kerr says ponds on his land have developed algae blooms, clots of foam and scum, while small animals have been found dead a few metres away.
A consultant found high concentrations of carbon dioxide in the soil that matches the carbon dioxide Cenovus has been injecting, he says.
The Saskatchewan NDP government had agreed to conduct a year-long study to find out what was going on, but that hasn't happened since the government changed in 2007.
MORE:
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/saskatchewan/story/
2011/01/11/sk-carbon-complaint-1101.html
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- Site Admin
- Posts: 10275
- Joined: Wed May 03, 2006 3:23 pm
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