Arguments Continue About Alberta Coal Bed Methane Gas
March 9, 2006.
The issue of coal bed methane continues, with some seeing it as a curse
that contaminates drinking water while others say it is the future of
the oil patch.
In Wyoming and New Mexico, the experience has cast the landscape there
into ruin because of drilling for natural gas in coal bed methane. Here
in Alberta, some landowners are now reporting impacts of a different
sort: water is so loaded with methane it can be lit on fire.
Public meetings, like one held at Mount Royal College today (Thursday)
are now hearing U.S. environmentalists warn of catastrophe.
"There has to be areas where industry is not going to drill an oil and
gas well," says New Mexico Environmentalist Gwen Lachelt.
But there is a problem: the traditional Alberta gas fiels, 25% of the
North American total, are slowly running dry.
"As a result of that, we have to start looking for alternatives," Bill
Gwozd, Vice President, Ziff Energy Group
Encana is doing just that, east and north of Calgary, going after the
natural gas found in the coal beds. Beds that could yeild 30% of
Alberta's natural gas in ten years.
We need a much more diverse strategy than what we have at the moment,"
says Andrew Nikiforuk, an Alberta environmentalist.
"There seems to be a lot of misinformation," says Stacy Knull, Vice
President of Encana Corporation.
Part of which is that coal bed methane means uncontained flaring of the
sort found in Wyoming, with accompanying toxins. Encana says there's
not a chance it's technology will foul the air, or the landscape.
"Their site is reduced to about the size of a large picinic table,
about 12 feet by 12 feet," confirms Knull.
But what about the flaming water? Encana says methane was discovered in
Alberta water a hundred years ;ago, and its always been there,
naturally and is not a consequence of drilling into coal bed methane.
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