SUNDRE – Sundre Petroleum Operators Group officials hope to continue pursuing a program intended to monitor levels of methane to establish a database that can help measure efforts to reduce emissions.
“We are in the final year of our methane program,” Tracey McCrimmon, executive director, told the Town of Sundre's council on June 23 during the last regular meeting before the summer break.
Providing some historical context, McCrimmon said the project initially started as a pilot when SPOG was allocated $3.5 million to conduct emissions checks that also paved the way to test out new technologies within the organization’s region.
“We inventoried all of that and actually created a substantial database,” she said.
SPOG eventually took the next step and applied for a provincial government program in partnership with the federal government, and was awarded an $18.9 million grant to expand that pilot on a provincial basis, she said.
Companies were then able to apply for funding to support their emission surveys while also allowing SPOG to test new technologies with fixed, aerial, and truck-based monitoring efforts, she said, adding the organization has been servicing and supporting companies throughout the province.
Along the way, a significant database has been accumulated that the provincial government will have access to at the end of the program, she said.
“It gives us the ability to have a measurement in place,” she later said in response to a question from council.
That way, as companies work to meet emissions reduction targets, “we can actually see the needle moving,” she said.
“We are starting conversations with the province to see how we can continue this program after its closure.”
McCrimmon also discussed an opportunity to enhance mutual aid emergency preparedness planning through Directive 71 and said SPOG plans to apply for a pilot to prepare emergency response plans (ERP) with multiple municipalities.
“Plus, doing that will almost force the hand for some of the smaller companies that don’t want to be SPOG members,” she said, adding municipalities will have authority to make participating in the project compulsory.
Right now, each company must have their own ERP, but the change “allows us to consolidate at significant cost savings for industry but also for municipalities,” she said, adding that by extension also further streamlines the emergency management preparedness process.
“There are some small operators in the area that we don’t always have the level of confidence that they can respond to their incident,” she said, expressing uncertainty as to why a smaller operator would not want to be a member of SPOG to have access to mutually shared resources.
“It will give us the opportunity to get some of the companies that utilize a lot of SPOG’s resources but do not participate, not only into SPOG as a member but into our mutual aid so that if there is an incident we can help them.”
This fire season has been a busy one, with many of the organization’s industry partners engaging the provincial government to pursue FireSmart planning, she said.
“In Mountain View County, we’ve had four fires that are still under investigation,” she said. “There still needs to be a lot of education out there.”
She also told council SPOG was moving back to Sundre after several years of being located in Olds, and that water will be the focus of the upcoming Neighbours’ Day on Aug. 22.
“We know that there is significant amount of concern with water,” she said.
The organization plans to work with watershed co-ops and also meet with industry partners to discuss what resources are available and geographically sound to use as alternate sources for fracking operations rather than fresh water.
In response to a council question about SPOG’s new location, McCrimmon said the organization was moving into a vacant office building in the southwest industrial district.
She told the Albertan on July 2 in response to a follow-up question that SPOG had just the day prior officially moved into its new space on the second floor of the two-storey building at 816, 5th Avenue SW and were settling in.
“We’ve got a six-month letter of intent, and then we’ll see what long-term looks like,” she told council.
Accounting for the amount SPOG has spent on rent over the years, the organization could by now have “put a very big dent on investing into a building,” she said.
“If we end up getting a long-term program on the methane emissions, we would be definitely looking at talking with industry to see if we wanted to invest in the space permanently.”
Coun. Owen Petersen said he was pleased to hear SPOG’s focus for Neighbours’ Day will be about water and that he looked forward to learning more about the steps being taken by the petroleum industry to protect the crucial resource that is the lifeblood of every community.
Council went onto carry a motion accepting the presentation for information and to participate in the Neighbours’ Day breakfast.
