Rosebud Alberta Resident to Take Fracking Case to the United Nations


A southern Alberta landowner who has long claimed coal bed methane drilling polluted her well water has launched a lawsuit demanding more than $10 million each from Encana, the Alberta government and the province's energy regulator.

Jessica Ernst, 54, is one of the province's most outspoken critics of drilling methods such as fracking, where water, chemicals and sand are blasted deep underground to break up coal formations and release natural gas.

In a statement of claim filed at Drumheller's courthouse, she states the failure of Alberta's Environment Department and the Energy Resources Conservation Board to investigate her case and enforce regulations "served as a government cover up of environmental contamination caused by the oil and gas industry."

Ernst claims that a decade ago Encana "began a risky and experimental drilling program for shallow coal bed methane at dozens of wells in the area around Rosebud," a small hamlet northeast of Calgary.

Ernst, an environmental consultant for the oil and gas industry who lives near the hamlet, alleges the natural gas giant released a large amount of contaminants into underground freshwater supplies.

"As a result, Ms. Ernst's water is now so contaminated with methane and other chemicals that it can be lit on fire," said the legal statement.

None of Ernst's claims have been proven in court.

In 2008, an Alberta Research Council report concluded the methane found in the wells in the area was naturally occurring, a phenomenon that exists in parts of Alberta where underground water supplies come from coal seams.

The report stated that "energy development projects in the areas most likely have not adversely affected the complainant water wells."

On Tuesday, Encana spokesman Alan Boras said the company had just become aware of the Ernst lawsuit and "as a result we would have to review it before we made any comment -if we did at all, because it's before the courts."

Alberta Environment spokesman Trevor Gemmell also declined to comment, saying the matter is before the courts.

At the ERCB, spokesman Bob Curran said in an e-mail the board has not been served with a statement of claim.

Ernst will hold a news conference in Calgary today, and said in a news release she will bring her story to the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development in New York next week.

Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, is a method used by drillers to extract unconventional natural gas resources being tapped as conventional supplies run low.

Ernst is seeking damages of at least $11.7 million from Encana, $10.7 million from Alberta Environment and $10.75 million from the ERCB.

kcrydermancalgaryherald.com

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