An Information Service for Alberta’s Environment Industry The Week Ending January 3rd, 2014 U Inside this Issue: WaterTech 2014: Abstract Submission Deadline – January 3rd April 9 - 11, 2014 • 75 Alberta Environment Farimont Banff Springs Regulators Now Paid by Oil Industry Call for Abstracts: The 7th Annual WaterTech Symposium will be held April 9-11, • Sherritt Says in Will Be 2014 at the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel. The Call for Abstract for WaterTech Responsible for Obed 2014 is available at: www.esaa-events.com/watertech/. Mine Spill Costs Despite Sale At this time, ESAA is requesting technical abstracts focused in, but not limited to, • Alberta Landfill Fire the following areas: Costs to Double • Groundwater-Surface Water Interaction/Management • Remediation Technology • Watershed Management/Planning/Modelling News and Resources • Data Collection/Monitoring/Testing • Upcoming Events • Protection and Sustainable Management of Water Resources • Water Quality • Job Board • Emerging Contaminants • and much more …. • Facility Operations, Industrial Issues, and Technologies • Industrial Wastewater Treatment U • Produced Water Management The ESAA Weekly • Deep Well Injection News is published • Integrated Research weekly by: • Regulatory Issues Environmental Services • Saline vs. Non-Saline Issues Association of Alberta • Coal-bed Methane Development 102, 2528 Ellwood • Hydraulic Fracturing Issues Drive SW • Oilsands Water Usage Edmonton, AB T6X 0A9 (P) 780.429.6363 • Oilsands Groundwater Contamination and Management (F) 780.429.4249 [email protected] UTTTH T New for 2014: In addition, ESAA is requesting presentations in the following areas www.esaa.orgHTTTU UTTH T that will form part of special streams at WaterTech 2014: • Flood Management, Forecasting, Recovery, Monitoring Comments & submissions • Oilsands Water Usage are welcome! • Pipeline Safety and Spill Response Please submit your Deadline to submit an abstract is January 3rd. Complete details available at: announcement via e-mail to: http://www.esaa-events.com/watertech/. [email protected] UTTTH T Registration is now open for the 7th Annual WaterTech symposium being held ...environmental April 9-11, 2014 at the Fairmont Banff Springs. Early Bird registration rates are integrity through available until January 10th, 2014. Full details available online at: www.esaa- innovative business solutions events.com/watertech/. EB 2014: Professional Development Courses - 60% Sold Out February 10-12, 2014 Edmonton Marriott @ River Cree Resort and Casino There is a limit of 25 registrations per course. Courses filled up quickly for EB 2013 and are already 60% sold out for 2014. EB 2014 will feature15 courses, including 5 new courses. All course descriptions have been updated. Complete courses descriptions and on-line registration available at: www.environmentbusiness.ca. February 10, 2014 - One Day Courses • Soil Chemistry for Remediating Salt-Affected Soils – 7 Spots Left • An Introduction to Environmental and Regulatory Law 2014 – 8 Spots Left • Introduction to the Federal Fisheries Navigable Waters Protection Acts – 18 Spots Left • Waste Classification and Disposal in Alberta – 9 Spots Left • Business and Project Risk Management of Contaminated Sites – 19 Spots Left • Environmental Management for Construction Projects – NEW – 1 Spot Left February 10 & 11, 2014 - Two Day Course • Introduction to Soil Science – NEW – 15 Spots Left February 11, 2014 - One Day Courses • Soil Chemistry for Remediating Salt-Affected Soils - 2nd Course – 21 Spots Left • Waste Classification and Disposal in Alberta - 2nd Course – SOLD OUT February 11 & 12, 2014 – Two Day Courses • An Introduction to Using Groundwater Models in Contaminated Site Assessment and Remediation Design – 21 Spots Left • Introduction to Hydrogeology – NEW – 4 Spots Left • Air Quality Management – 9 Spots Left • Environmental Project Management Planning Essentials – 16 Spots Left • Occupational Hygiene – NEW – 23 Spots Left • Spill Response and Low Impact Remedial Measures-Wetland and Water Bodies – NEW – SOLD OUT Complete courses descriptions and on-line registration available at: www.environmentbusiness.ca. Two Sponsorship Opportunities Still Available at EB’2014: Two sponsorship opportunities are still available. Full details are also available online at: http://www.environmentbusiness.ca/sponsors.htm. 75 ALBERTA ENVIRONMENT REGULATORS NOW PAID BY OIL INDUSTRY (Source: Edmonton Journal) EDMONTON - More than 75 environment officers who watched over oil industry activities left the provincial environment department this fall, to take higher paying jobs with the new industry-funded Alberta Energy Regulator. Another 75-plus are expected to leave in the spring. In mid-November, the department also began handing over to the regulator thousands of files on oil industry activity pertaining to the Public Lands Act, according to documents obtained by the Journal. This shift in staffing and the moving of years of files out of a government department to the new arm’s length regulator are key steps in the government’s plan, announced last spring, to create a more streamlined approval process for oil companies that wanted “one window” to get permits for new projects. Previously, companies had to apply to the environment department for some permits and to the old regulator, the now defunct Energy Resources Conservation Board. To achieve the “one window,” the provincial government handed over to the privately funded regulator responsibility for administering the Water Act, Public Lands Act, and the Environmental Protection and Enhancement Act (dealing with spills) as they pertain to energy companies. Former Energy Minister Ken Hughes said last spring that the new regulator will have checks and transparency built in to make sure it enforces environment laws as strongly as occurred under the environment department. The new regulator is funded solely by industry, whereas previously, the regulator was funded jointly by industry and government. But New Democrat Rachel Notley worries the dismantling of large parts of the environment department will result in weaker protection because the Alberta Energy Regulator’s mandate is to advance oil industry activity. “This is just another step going down this road — we now have a regulator whose prime mandate in legislation is to promote economic development and it is now also the prime environmental enforcer in the oilpatch,” said Notley. Environment department staff began to move over in September, with the bulk leaving in late November, according to documents. The group includes fish and wildlife officers, forestry officers, biologists, and rangers in various locations. The salaries in some cases are 25 to 80 per cent higher, noted Mike Dempsey, a vice-president of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees. Many are union members who must give up AUPE membership to transfer, he added. “We’re hoping they are bringing their work ethic over there,” said Dempsey. “We’re trying to take a glass-is-half-full approach. “ But there’s “a lot of talk around the coffee table,” about the perception of potential conflict of interest when employees’ salaries are paid by the industry they are enforcing, and not by taxpayers, he said. “How unbiased can this be, just in perception?” said Dempsey. Enforcement officers “will be in the position” of handing out penalties for poor practices on land-clearing to the companies paying their salaries, said Dempsey, adding that the department urged staff to apply for the new jobs. The change for environmental enforcement is major and must be closely watched, said Notley. “I think it’s going to come down to the culture of the organization,” and industry has more opportunity to influence the new regulator given that its chairman of the board is Gerry Protti, a founder of the oil industry lobby group, the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, she said. Under Protti is chief executive, Jim Ellis, a former deputy minister of environment. His record is troubling, said Notley. “It was on Ellis’s watch,” said Notley, that the department circulated an internal briefing note that criticized a respected environment group, the Pembina Institute, for publishing “negative media on the oilsands” and stated that was a reason to deny environmental groups standing at an oilsands hearing. The memo was revealed in a recent trial in which the judge ruled against the department. Notley said she’s also worried that if the new regulator takes a softer approach to environmental enforcement for the energy industry, other industries will push the environment department to adopt the same approach. Former Environment Minister Diana McQueen promised last spring that the department’s budget would not be cut, so there may be room to hire other staff, Notley noted. The environment department will still oversee industries such as forestry and gravel excavation, and develop the regional land-use plans that will be key in determining acceptable industry activity and pollution levels, McQueen said. Meanwhile, Brad Pickering, a longtime deputy minister, has been appointed to head Alberta’s environmental monitoring agency that will take over the job of measuring pollution in air, water and wildlife when the current joint federal provincial monitoring agency expires next year. That body may also hire away more people from the environment department, Dempsey added. Pickering has been deputy minister of tourism, parks and recreation, solicitor general, sustainable resource development and municipal affairs.