Minutes of the Red Deer River Municipal User Group Regular Meeting Held on March 21, 2019 at 1:00 PM, Badlands Community Facility, Drumheller, Alberta
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Minutes of the Red Deer River Municipal User Group Regular Meeting held on March 21, 2019 at 1:00 PM, Badlands Community Facility, Drumheller, Alberta 1.0 Call to Order: Chair Terry Leslie called the meeting to order at 1:03 PM. Attendance: Co-Chair Terry Leslie – Town of Sundre, Michael Dawe - City of Red Deer, Gerald Campion - Town of Hanna, Gavin Bates - Town of Innisfail, Graham Parsons - Town of Sylvan Lake, Michelle Swanson - Clearwater County, Wanda Blatz - Town of Olds, Tim Besuijen - Village of Alix, Les Stulberg - Town of Stettler, Richard Poole - Town of Blackfalds, Ray Wildeman - Town of Three Hills, Jay Slemp - Special Areas Board, Glen Keiver – Kneehill County, John Ireland – Lacombe County, Darryl Drohomerski – Town of Drumheller, Al Campbell – Town of Stettler, Murray Marshall – Starland County, Dennis Kuiken – Village of Acme, Murray Marshall – Starland County, Philip Massier – Red Deer County, Bonnie Munro – Town of Trochu, Jason Wallsmith – MD of Acadia, Tim Ainscough – City of Red Deer, Bill Shaw – Red Deer City, Jeff Hanger RDRWA; Rosemarie Ferjuc - RDRWA, Keith Ryder - RDRMUG Executive Director, Recording Secretary – Linda Handy 2.0 Adoption of Agenda 2.1 Approval of Agenda MOTION G. Campion moved that the agenda for the March 21, 2019 Red Deer River Municipal User Group Meeting be adopted as presented. Carried unanimously. 3.0 Panel Discussion: Dr. Karlis Muehlenbachs, Professor, Department of Atmosphere and Earth, University of Alberta, Dr. Muehlenbachs specializes in many aspects of geochemistry including the contamination of groundwater by natural gas and in-situ steam-assisted heavy oil extraction. Dr. Muehlenbacks – with 25 years’ experience of analyzing problem leaks from surface casing vents (SCV) in comparison to source of gas in water wells - provided an update on efforts to assess impact of oil and gas wells on groundwater in the Red Deer River Drainage Basin. Highlights of his presentation include: - There can be an impact on ground water as evident in court cases on burning water; possible accidental releases of gas by the 450,000 wells drilled throughout the Province of Alberta; Cited studies done by Frank Swartz, Thomas Darrah, and Joachim Mortgat on modeled scenarios; - What fraction of wells have leaked? He explained that this is a work in progress on population spread and ultimate consequences of shallow versus deep wells; - He explained the potential pathways of migrating gases; in summary leaks seem to come from different ground formations; - He concluded by explaining that most soil and SCVF (surface casing vents flow) gases do not originate from the target, but rather from intermediate depths. There appears to be regulated control on source depths of SCVF and GM (gas migration). He stated that there is no evidence that there are more leaks on conventional wells than new wells. He further stated that we probably have already screwed the groundwater and there is little pristine groundwater. Faulty resource wells have impacted some water wells. Sources of problem gases from horizontal wells are similar to the sources of vertical wells of the same region. 8 3.1 Ms. JoAnne Volk, M.Sc., P. Eng. Water Lead, Repsol Energy Presentation focused on Repsol Energy’s use of grey water in their production processes. Highlights of her presentation include: - Water is primarily used in fracking because it is the safest to do so and more cost effective. Water is not corrosive. Slick water fracking is the preferred method which uses 75,000 cubic metres (m3) – equates to about 2000 truckloads for drilling one well; may be able to recycle flow back; - Alternative fluids to use for fracking include: municipal wastewater, low quality groundwater, flow back water recycle, produced water recycle and industrial wastewater; treated municipal wastewater costs more than the twice that of fresh water; - Regulations involved to use treated municipal wastewater including letter of authorization from AEP and public consultation process through AER, such as Alberta Water Reuse and Stormwater Use Guidebook. 3.2 Mark Lansing (Vesta Energy) and Thomas Everett, (Surface Land Manager) were in attendance to answer questions pertaining to Vesta’s recent license application(s) for water from the Red Deer River. Mr. Lansing provided the following overview of their water diversion application: - Vesta is applying to the AER for a multi-year term license under the Water Act. The purpose of the licence is to authorize Vesta to divert water from the Red Deer River to support hydraulic fracturing and related activities. The application is for a term of ten years with withdrawal of up to 6.12 million cubic meters (m3) per year at a maximum combined withdrawal rate of 0.5 cubic meters per second (m3/s). Why this amount? Slick water uses 80,000 cubic meters per well based on 90 wells per year = 7.2 M cubic meters to meet their long term development plan; water reuse would be approximately $15% leaving 6.12M cubic meters as the request for the water diversion application. He further explained that if there is a drought situation Vesta would not be able to divert water (3 days on average per year) and would use their water reservoir storage on these days. In response to limited regulations for inspections, he explained that this is not the case and Vesta has been inspected on their current diversion operations regularly and inspections are tracked. Ms. Volk agreed and confirmed that well inspections are regularly conducted on their operations as well. With regards to the recent earthquake near Sylvan Lake and whether there is direct correlation with Vesta’s seismic operations in the area, T. Everett advised that Vesta was conducting fracking at this time and their data has been provided to Alberta Energy Regulator. He read a letter that was provided as a media release following the earthquake and stated that operations at pad 10.32 has been suspended. He further stated that it will be a further 4-6 weeks before the final report is released from Alberta Energy Regulator - AGS. 4.0 Confirmation of Minutes 4.1 Confirmation of minutes of the Regular Meeting of January 19, 2019 MOTION P. Massier moved that the Red Deer River Municipal User Group Meeting minutes of January 19, 2019 be adopted as presented. Carried unanimously. 4.2 Business arising from minutes of January 19, 2019 None. 4.0 Financial 5.1 Financial Statements to January 31, 2019 K. Ryder, Executive Director, provided an overview of the unaudited financial statements to January 31, 2019 as follows: Balance Statement: Current Assets - $116,899.18 Closing Surplus – $57,322.93 Statement of Revenue and Expenses – Revenue - $11,297.15; Expenses - $4,013.53 Surplus (Loss) for Year – $7,283.62. 5.2 2019 Operating Budget Revised K. Ryder presented the revised 2019 operating budget and noted that the Operating Budget has been adjusted to move the $5000 from the Crown Reservation Project to Integrated Land Use Planning (under new projects) for a total of $10,000. MOTION R. Poole moved to accept the Financial Report to February 28, 2019 and the revised 2019 Operating Budget as presented. Carried. 6.0 RDRMUG Water Quality Action Plan: 6.1 Update on the charter process: The following municipalities have completed their Charter documents: Town of Hanna, Town of Stettler, Town of Drumheller, City of Red Deer, Lacombe County, Paintearth County, Village of Delburne and Town of Sundre. K. Ryder encouraged other member municipalities to consider signing off on the document.. 7.0 Next Steps for RDRMUG 7.1 Integrated Landuse/Source Water Protection – BPS Consulting – Bill Shaw provided an update and report on his work to date in preparing tools for RDRMUG to proactively integrate planning for land, source water and watershed within the DNA of municipal statutory. He stated that 60% of the report is background information for inclusion in municipal statutory plans with the primary focus on water. He explained that the final version of the report and folio will be presented for approval by the RDRMUG at the May meeting. Final printing and distribution to occur in late May and early June. MOTION M. Swanson moved to accept B. Shaw’s Report for information. Vote: Carried unanimously. 8.0 Executive Director Report: 8.1 Update(s) / Admin Information 8.2 Upcoming Events/Meetings March 22, 2019 World Water Day; March 22, 2019 RDRWA Spring Forum, Red Deer April 14-16, 2019 Canadian Water Resources Association’s Alberta Spring Conference will be held in Red Deer. MOTION R. Wildeman moved to accept the Executive Director’s report as presented. Carried. 9.0 Executive Committee Recommendations: 10.0 Agenda Additions 11.0 Municipal Project Review: An opportunity for all representatives to share their current and future water/waste water projects. 12.0 Correspondence & Articles: Various Handouts 13.0 Next Meeting : May 16, 2019 (venue to be confirmed – hosted by the City of Red Deer – Tim Ainscough) 14.0 Adjournment MOTION R. Poole moved to adjourn the meeting at 3:45 PM. Carried. .