Residents in the Priddis area are still not resting easy despite assurances from a University of Calgary professor a proposed carbon-capture monitoring testing site is no danger to the area.
Approximately 15 residents from the Priddis area attended Dr. Don Lawton’s presentation at the Foothills MD council chambers in High River on Thursday concerning the proposed carbon capture testing site to be located at the university’s Rothney Astrophysical Observatory, located 12 kilometres north of Millarville on Highway 22.
Fred Breeze, who owns a quarter section near Rothney Astrophysical Observatory where the carbon capture project would be developed, said he questions why such a populated area is being considered for carbon capture.
“My biggest question is why consider an area where there is any potential risk to families in the area — assuming there is a risk,” Breeze said. “I’m just afraid of being a guinea pig.”
Lawton said there is no risk to the residents or their groundwater supply. He told Foothills council the university’s proposal calls for storing the CO2 some 700m underground while groundwater used by residents is 30m to 100m below the surface.
He said there is no threat to residential wells.
Breeze said he doesn’t want to shut the door on the project, he just wants his concerns, such as potential contamination of groundwater, addressed.
“At the same time, I have to look after our children,” Breeze said. “It’s a straight safety issue… We have wells, we don’t have town water that is protected by pipe.”
He stressed this isn’t a case of “Not In My Back Yard” syndrome.
“I wouldn’t want this in Red Deer Lake, Millarville or any place where there are people,” Breeze said.
Lawton told MD council the site is extremely safe. He said there is a solid shale surface atop the proposed reservoir to prevent any CO2 from seeping towards the ground or the aquifer.
While he could not 100 per cent guarantee there would not be any leaking of the CO2, it would dissolve or cling to rocks due to capillary trapping.
“In a worst case scenario if there was a big fracture that went all the way to the surface, our modeling shows it (the CO2) would only get about 20 per cent up before being dissolved by water in the rock,” he said.
As well, the CO2 levels will be constantly monitored by a variety of tracking technologies.
The project is being done to study carbon capture monitoring techniques.
Lawton said approximately 600 tonnes a year of liquid CO2 would be pumped into the site. That is equivalent to how much wastewater is produced in three average homes a year.
Shirley Pickering, a hydrology expert, was also invited to the presentation to ask Lawton questions. When MD Coun. Barb Castell asked Pickering if she would be bothered about living next door to the proposed site, Pickering replied, at this point, she would not.
After the meeting, Lawton said he understood the concerns of the residents in light of the Weyburn incident when it was reported CO2 leaked into a
nearby farmer’s property.
He said the amount of CO2 injected into the ground near Weyburn is thousands times more than what will be injected into the Priddis area site.
Lawton added it has yet to be confirmed if the issues at Weyburn were due to the carbon capture site.
He said the benefits for having the study at the Rothney facility is the cost because the university owns the property.
He added the proximity to Calgary makes it convenient as an education destination for U of C students and residents of the foothills.
Several of the residents at the Jan. 27 meeting expressed concerns about the lack of communication between the MD of Foothills and its citizens regarding the project.
MD manager Harry River Cambrin said the meeting on Thursday was held because Lawton wanted to keep MD councillors informed.
“The MD doesn’t have jurisdiction in this area,” Riva Cambrin said. “We didn’t send out notices to anyone.”
The proposal is under the Energy Resource Conservation Board’s (ERCB) jurisdiction.
“When you put something in that requires ERCB approval, the MD is pushed aside,” Riva Cambrin said. “They don’t need any permits from us to do this.”
Lawton stressed the project is still at the preliminary stage. ERCB hearings would have to be held before the project can proceed. The U of C will hold an open house concerning the project at the Priddis Community Hall in late February or early March.
