Chief pushes band-owned waste management site
Harry Deneron questions oversight toward contaminated well-sites near Fort Liard
April Hudson
Northern News Services
Thursday, April 14, 2016
ACHO DENE KOE/FORT LIARD
Acho Dene Koe Chief Harry Deneron questions the amount of oversight toward two contaminated well sites near Fort Liard.
Apache Canada Ltd. just completed cutting and capping its well sites on Pointed Mountain, approximately 21.5 kilometres northwest of Fort Liard. - NNSL file photo
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"Who is monitoring (the cleanup)? I don't know. We don't have anybody in that capacity," he said.
"The contamination (cleanup) is ongoing, I hope. But we're far from satisfied with (how) they're doing it."
Both sites have passed hands from the companies originally responsible for their contamination to other companies.
A large hill of contaminated soil on an area called Site 3P-66B located northwest of the community, overseen by Canadian Natural Resources Limited, has been sitting for the past three years without being reclaimed, according to community members in Fort Liard.
Canadian Natural Resources currently holds the land use permit for the site, which expires May 20. The company took on the site from Ranger Oil in 2000.
According to documents filed to the Mackenzie Valley Land and Water Board earlier this month, the company intends to renew the land use permit.
The second site, Pointed Mountain, has been managed by Apache Canada and is in the middle of being reclaimed. Apache recently wrapped up its work for the year, although more remains to be done.
Apache took ownership of that site in November 2010 after purchasing a series of properties from BP. The original owner was Amoco which merged with BP in 2001. Abandonment work began at that site at the same time.
Deneron said in his estimation the sites are more contaminated than Yellowknife's Giant Mine because the material in question is soil, not rock.
"Nobody knows how deep the contamination is," he said.
"They did some drill testing (but we) don't know who supervised them. I believe independent supervision is what's needed here."
Deneron said the band needs a waste contamination management site to properly take care of contaminated soils on the Canadian Natural Resources-owned site and Pointed Mountain.
According to his estimations, each site has approximately 1,700 truckloads worth of contaminated soil to take out.
A band-run site would not only generate revenue but would also cut back on the risky operation of hauling contaminated soil in truckloads to distant waste sites in Fort Nelson, B.C., and Rainbow Lake, Alta., - which in the past has seen trucks carrying contaminated soil hit the ditch, he said.
"We can eliminate that (risk), and benefit from it," he said.
"We should be saying, 'Get it out of there (and) it's going to go to my site.' When that contamination is sitting on (the Canadian Natural Resources-owned site), it's doing nobody no good. In fact, it might be harming in the long run."
Canadian Natural Resources spokesperson Julie Woo confirmed in an e-mail the company has no reclamation activities planned for the site for 2016.
"(Canadian Natural Resources) has an environmental management system in place to effectively manage our operations and activities in the areas of land, air and water as well as regulatory compliance," she stated.
Apache injection well cleanup ongoing
A final remediation plan for Pointed Mountain is currently under review by the Mackenzie Valley Land and Water Board.
On March 11, Apache Canada finished its abandonment of an injection well at the site and finished cutting and capping its four remaining wellheads at Pointed Mountain.
Company spokesperson Paul Wyke stated in an e-mail that most of the remaining remediation work at the site relates to potential treatment and removal of contaminated soil.
"We are still in the process of evaluating potential on-site soil treatment options (such as aeration) at this time," Wyke stated.
"If we are to treat hydrocarbon-impacted soil on site, those activities won't occur until 2017 at the earliest."
The company does not plan to do any further remediation work in 2016.
Wyke stated Apache Canada aims to have its remediation work at Pointed Mountain completed by 2019, at which point its current land use permit expires.
Tied to Apache's cleanup was the de-activation of the Pointed Mountain Pipeline, a project undertaken by Spectra Energy.
Steven Steeves, the site foreman for Spectra and mayor of Fort Liard, told Deh Cho Drum there were 27 workers on-site for the cleanup, which involved removing liquids from pipelines and physically removing pipe connections.
"We cut and capped 1,200 metres of (pipeline)," Steeves said.
He said aside from a couple small bumps - a broken hydraulic line and a grader that had to be pulled out of a dip - the project went off without a hitch.
Steeves said he used to be the plant operator at Pointed Mountain and has been responsible for exposing some buried pits.
Steeves said most of the contamination comes from drilling muds. He described digging three to four metres into a pile of plastic bags from decades ago, as well as digging up old barrels of chemicals.
"It is really, really contaminated," he said of the site. "It's horribly contaminated and it's unfortunate."
