Environmentalists lose heavy oil fight in Alberta

Gary Park

A C$500 million expansion of Imperial Oil’s heavy oil operation at Cold Lake, in northeastern Alberta, won regulatory approval, overriding environmental claims that Imperial’s drilling harms local water systems.

The province’s Energy and Utilities Board said the Mahkeses project “is in the public interest, with significant public benefit,” including 450 construction jobs and 185 permanent new employees.

When completed in 2002 it will add 30,000 barrels per day to the 100,000 barrels per day currently being produced by Imperial (67 percent owned by Exxon), representing about 6 percent of Canada’s daily crude output. The project involves drilling 700 new wells, which many local residents fear will add to already high arsenic levels in their domestic water supply.

Imperial argued its existing 3,000 wells experience only about 10 fractures a year and the company spends C$10 million annually to monitor safety levels. The EUB attached nine conditions to the latest approval, requiring enhanced monitoring of groundwater flow, water levels, arsenic levels and fracturing of well casings.