The Penobsquis Story

In May 1998, brine water began draining into a back‐filled mine section of Potash Corp’s Penobsquis mine. Mine officials believed that the inflowing water came from a 20‐year‐old abandoned and improperly sealed test hole and began looking into ways of stopping the flow. 

Around that time, the first water wells and springs were lost in Penobsquis. These losses followed seismic testing, and some community members wondered if the two events were connected. Of the four or five wells lost at this time, most people were able to re‐drill, and one business put in a cistern and collected rainwater. 

In 2000 and 2001, Potash Corp partnered with Corridor Resources to finance the drilling of two wells to explore for gas, as well as drill a disposal well for the water flowing into their mine. As we now know, they found gas. These two wells now provide natural gas to the Penobsquis Potash Corp mine and today, PotashCorp has 50% interest in about half of Corridor’s wells. 

In 2004, Corridor drilled more gas wells and another round of exploratory shot‐hole seismic testing coincided with the loss of water at several homes. Many residents felt the blasts: their homes shook; dishes, pictures and ductwork rattled. Several homeowners found either no water or muddy water the next time they went to their taps. In some cases, the water returned, only to go dry months later. At the same time the water inflow problem in the potash mine increased. 

Since 2004, five to six rounds of seismic testing have taken place in Penobsquis for exploration work for potash, oil and gas. Hydraulic fracturing (fracking) has been used to stimulate gas wells adjacent to the potash mine workings. The blasts from seismic testing opened up holes the size of Volkswagens in nearby fields. 

Subsequent research showed that the cap rock over the original potash mine workings was more brittle than expected and had cracked – most likely due to the combination of industrial activities taking place, including the depletion of the water (causing areas beneath the ground to compress), the continuing mining subsidence and, to a lesser degree, seismic activity and hydraulic fracturing. This crack has allowed the aquifer to empty into the mine. Studies suggest this aquifer, less than 150m from the surface, drains faster than it recharges. 

The depletion of the aquifer has caused additional ‘subsidence’ or ground settling and horizontal displacement beyond that expected from the mining process itself. Although Potash Corp describes ‘expected’ or ‘normal’ mining subsidence as part of their operations, in this case, they estimate the ground will continue to subside for another 100 years. 

Originally, all the mine water was hauled away by about 300 tractor trailer loads every day to be dumped into the Bay of Fundy. In 2010, even with a pipeline pumping 11 million litres of brine water daily to the bay, an additional 100 truckloads leave the plant for the port of Saint John daily. 

More than 60 water wells and springs have been lost since industrialization of Penobsquis began, and all are almost directly over the mine workings. It seems reasonable to assume that the water flowing into the mine at rates exceeding 1,800 US Gallons per minute, is connected to the water loss and subsidence. 

For 5 years, at taxpayers’ expense, residents received weekly water rations (15 gallons per adult) trucked to basement holding tanks and Potash Corp provided bottled water. Now, residents pay for water from a new system that cost New Brunswick taxpayers $10M. (PotashCorp paid for approx 10%). About 50% of this water supplies commercial clients, mostly PotashCorp. The other 50% supplies residential homes. Residents paid more per unit volume of water than industry. 

Sixteen homeowners took complaints of lost wells and the resulting hardships, and mining and subsidence issues to the New Brunswick Mining Commission. Years after filing this complaint, the complainants “resolved” the issue with PotashCorp, which took more than 20 days of the hearing during a two‐year period. 

Those involved contributed literally thousands of hours and personal finances to the preparation and accumulation of information for this hearing. As a result of their efforts, PotashCorp stated it would pay for the water bills for all other residents in the community if their wells went dry, as long as they owned their homes. This resolution finally came in 2012 ‐ more than seven years after the beginning of the problems. 

The homes and property now being affected by subsidence (ground settling) are the same homes that originally lost their well water. Property owners have sinkholes, shifting walls and roofs, concrete cracks in basements, septic fields that no longer drain and other issues. 

Then there are the ‘incidents’: a grassfire started by flaring, a middle of the night explosion in 2005, a tractor hit a pipeline in 2008, and several well sites have had contaminations. At least one of these that Corridor claims is not the result of an accident or spill. 

But it is well pad F‐67 that causes the greatest concern. In August 2006, a crack in equipment released 3000 litres of frack fluid, sand and radioactive tracer beads unto the pad. This well pad is situated in a subsidence zone beside a CN railway track in poor repair...the same section of track upon which several train cars had previously derailed. 

Corridor Resources originally had plans to enlarge this pad, drill a new well and repair a leaking well in 2014, but early in the year, amended their plans to re‐frack four other wells on different well pads. All of these well pads are located on the Kennebecasis floodplain. Residents are unsure whether the leaking well will be repaired. 

Deborah Carr

5 March 2014

Response and comments to:

McCULLY PHASED ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT PHASE III:  

NATURAL GAS EXPLORATION AND 

DEVELOPMENT IN McCULLY FIELD

Feb 2014        TE131040

The EIA submitted to Corridor Resources Inc. by AMEC Environment & Infrastructure is the first EIA I have ever commented upon.  Being as it is premised upon the perviously approved Phase I & II submittals, the Phase III EIA will no doubt include the minimum information required by the GNB in order to grant its approval to proceed.  However, I would like to go on record concerning inadequacies not included in this study that should have a bearing upon further exploration and development of unconventional gas and oil in Penobsquis as well as the province in general.

The EIA should begin by clearly acknowledging that the very nature and procedures used in the development of unconventional gas through hydraulic or propane fracturing are inherently toxic and dangerous.  The EIA states the intention of Corridor Resources to meet all the minimum standards as regulated by the GNB. The potential dangers to the residents of the local community and the local ecosystems are grave and require extraordinary measures be evaluated and undertaken.  The precautionary principle established by courts in Canada clearly define the responsibility of the industry and the government to protect the citizenry and the environment. 

The initial exploration and development of the McCully Field was approved by the GNB prior to the findings of subsequent peer reviewed scientific studies regarding current methods and standards of unconventional gas exploration and extraction.  New studies surface each day that question the efficacy of current industry methodologies and the long tern safety and sustainability of the industry in general.  I would implore the GNB to review these studies prior to approval of the Phase III EIA.

As recommended by Dr. Eilish Cleary, NB Chief Medical Officer of Health, as well as the NB College of Family Physicians, base line studies of the long term health effects of the industry need to be undertaken prior to approving expansion of the industry.  For example, a recent study by the Colorado School of Public Health has documented a correlation of birth defects within 10 miles of well pads. This is well beyond the 250 meter minimum setback required by NB Rules for Industry for separation of well pads from residences or the 5 km radius study area of this EIA or the public consultation by Corridor of “landowners within an 1800 meter radius of the the three well pads”.  Residents of Penobsquis have persistently requested, to no avail, air monitoring by theDepartment of the Environment and the industry to safeguard their families’ health.  Air monitoring is not even mentioned in the EIA.  Unfortunately, the residents of Penobsquis have become the “canaries in the gas fields”.

The Phase III EIA describes the fracture treatment of existing wells using propane (LPG): two (2) treatments at the J-76 shale well; one (1) treatment at the D-67 sand well and the P-67 sand well; and two (2) treatments at the L-37 sand well.  Fracture treatment using LPG has been conducted previously by Corridor.  The use of LPG as a fracturing agent is new and potentially very hazardous.  The health and property of the entire community could be adversely affected by an unintended accident.  Are local volunteer fire fighting units trained and equipped to respond to a mishap involving large quantities of LPG and toxic materials?  Dr. Anthony Ingraffea had the following comments concerning LPG fracturing:

Fracing with liquified propane, or butane (LPG):

• still needs large quantities of additional, but different chemicals to add to the LPG;
• needs HD compressor on each site to recondense returned propane/butane for reuse, and additional processing on each site for reuse;
• frac process is now nearly "robotic" because of risks to personnel on the pad;
• have been two explosions/fires in past year, one quite serious with hospitalizations;
• many truckloads of LPG needed for each frac job-these trucks are transporting hazardous material, not water;
• LPG not available in large enough volumes to make this "THE" method in any play with tens of thousands of wells projected;
• the biggies, Schlumberger, Hallliburton, et al. will not like encroachment on their turf..they have billions invested in equipment and personnel training for water based fracing, but they currently say they are "interested" in this new line of research: you make the call
• the ONLY substantive information about the process comes from the company - in effect advertising claims. There has been no independent empirical analysis of the complete life cycle of LPG fracs.
• still transports some materials from downhole just like slick water does and will be subject to the same constraints:

1. communication back to surface via faults and old open wells
2. communication/migration of methane and other downhole crap via casing sealing failures and leaks (cf the Pavilion/EPA study (11-10-11 released) and the "Duke" methane migration study), and
3. surface spills of frac related materials that comes back up
4. the added danger of propane, a heavier than air gas leaking and pooling in low spots near the well pad in large amounts and causing an explosion hazard

Bottom line: no science available to evaluate either env impact of LP frac or the safety thereof. Grasping at straws for a solution to a problem the industry claims does not exist.

A. R. Ingraffea, Ph.D., P.E.

Dwight C. Baum Professor of Engineering

Weiss Presidential Teaching Fellow

Cornell University   

The potential dangers of further production of sand or shale gas wells in a flood plain

and in an area of known and continuing subsidence is not adequately addressed in the 

Phase III EIA.  Recent flooding events in Colorado are an example of what can happen 

to well pads in a flood plain.  Any unforeseen damages or accidents resulting form gas 

development or production in a flood plain are not easily mitigated.  The EIA should 

clearly define mitigation measures such that they can be peer reviewed for adequacy. 

Dr. Anthony Ingraffea called the locating of gas wells in a subsidence area like 

Penobsquis “foolish, asking for trouble” and “Speaking as an engineer ... it’s stupid.  

Don’t do it.”  Since the wells of the McCully field are located in the same flood plain 

above the potash mines, the EIA should also address the potential for and response 

plan to a well failure or mining accident releasing methane into the the mines underlying 

the community.

Conclusions:

The inherent toxic and dangerous nature of the unconventional oil and gas industry and its history of harm to humans and natural ecosystems should make the development of this industry near existing homes and businesses unthinkable.  All steel rusts, all concrete fails, all gas wells will eventually lose their well bore integrity and leak.  This is a non-sustainable industry exploited on an industrial scale for short term profit at the expense of the people who live in Penobsquis.

The Premier and various ministers of the GNB have stated that unconventional gas development is essential to providing jobs and operating the potash mines in Penobsquis.  The gas produced in the McCully Field is partially used by the Potash Corporation in the operation of the mines and partially to generate profits for Corridor Resources.  Have the meager royalties earned by the province, after reimbursing Corridor Resources for its capital expenditures, covered the costs of damages to public infrastructure and additional health care?  

Contrary to public statements made by the Premier and various ministers of the GNB, the citizens of Penobsquis have had their health, air, water and properties adversely affected by the industrialization of their rural community.  When their water wells went dry or became non-potable, the GNB and the industries stonewalled for years before providing a replacement water system (at taxpayer expense).  Residents of Penobsquis have persistently requested, to no avail, for air monitoring by the Department of the Environment and the industry to safeguard their families’ health.  The residents have not  been compensated for the loss of value in their homes under the NB Rules for Industry. 

Before the GNB asks other New Brunswick families and communities to sacrifice their way of life and wellbeing to unconventional oil and gas exploration and development, the lessons learned and experienced by the citizens of Penobsquis need to be heard. They were not included in the Phase III Environmental Impact Assessment.

Consider an alternative.  The Potash Corporation could have chosen to invest in a biomass boiler system and renewable power generation to generate the hot water, steam and electricity they needed to operate the mines and as a byproduct could have also offered a district hot water / home heating system to the community as a good corporate neighbor.  More local jobs would have been created to operate the biomass system and to service the renewable power system meaning more income for the local economy. The $10 million spent on the water system to replace lost wells could have been avoided and/or spent in the development of the biomass and renewable systems.  The corporation would have had the energy they needed, more local jobs would have been created, property values would have been protected, the community would have received the benefit of hot water and home heating, the air would have been safe to breathe and the water to drink, and a bright future could been a reality for future generations of residents in Penobsquis.

Richard Lachance & Eveline Haché

Cocagne NB                                                                                                     

An Afternoon in Penobsquis

Sunday, 8 September 2013, saw a gathering of approximately 50 people from throughout the province sharing with Penobsquis residents their experiences of the development of the 31 natural gas wells in their community.  Their stories are of particular relevance to the future of shale gas development proposed by our government on 1/7 of the most populated and fertile provincial lands.

The current Corridor Resources gas wells in Penobsquis are extracting natural gas from sandstone formations that are shallower in depth and required much less fresh water and industrialized impact than the shale gas wells being currently pursued by the Government of New Brunswick. The toxic waste water from drilling these wells was transported to Nova Scotia who have refused to accept any future waste waters from New Brunswick.  The water currently being pumped out of the mines by Potash Corporation is currently being piped into the Bay of Fundy. 

The natural gas development done by Corridor Resources in Penobsquis was done in cooperation with the Potash Corporation.  Half of the 31 Corridor Resources wells are jointly owned by the Potash Corporation with a significant amount of the gas produced utilized by Potash Corporation in its mining operations.  It is often difficult to say what negative impacts were caused by which industry.  In fact, the close relationship between the industries are in reality and should be considered as one industry, i.e. the Potash-Corridor Corporation.

The industrialization of this portion of the Sussex Valley has changed the rural way of life of the community for decades to come. Properties have subsided and moved laterally, existing water wells have gone dry, and the air has a distinctive odor. These are the obvious current and continuing physical impacts. What the future holds is still not fully known.

The affected residents who lost their water have fought the Potash-Corridor Corporation for six years to acknowledge responsibility for the damages they caused to little or no avail.  The government even denied the residents access to civil courts to seek redress.  Eventually, a district water system was constructed to provide potable water to the residents of Penobsquis as well as to the Potash-Corridor Corporation at taxpayer expense. It would seem that access to water for the potash/natural gas industry as well as restitution to the community should have been the sole responsibility of the Potash-Corridor Corporation as part of doing business.  The costs should have been borne by the shareholders, not the residents of New Brunswick.

Several producing natural gas well pads as well as a compressor station were visited by the gathered participants.  What was seen was the “nice” side of the natural gas industry - fenced industrial pads with forest green painted well heads, piping and small equipment sheds.  What we smelled near the potash mines took our breath away. The sight and sounds of the birds and insects that used to inhabit the same lands were absent.  What wasn’t experienced were the months of noise and light pollution and heavy traffic experienced by the residents when the wells were developed.

The social impact upon the community was told with every story.  The Potash-Corridor Corporation has become the town.  People who work for the corporation, or have family members and neighbors who work for the corporation, are fearful to speak about what is happening to their community.  Those who question what is happening have fewer friends and have even received anonymous death threats.  Some family elders are fearful to leave their homes. People will drive by their mailbox depending on who is there.  A new face in town is looked upon with suspicion. Property value depreciation and the inability to sell property have become a fact of life.  People no longer look at Penobsquis as a desirable place to live, to move to or to begin new businesses.  

The provincial government acts as if it has the right to allow corporations to move into traditionally residential or agricultural communities without any obligation of the corporation to receive the consent of or to establish a social contract with the residents.  When historically unknown impacts result from their industrial activities, residents must prove harm by the industry.  The corporation has no obligation to prove they did no harm.  This amounts to the seizure (expropriation) by the government of a community’s way of life and personal property without compensation for the benefit of the shareholders of a corporation.

The residents of Penobsquis have much to tell us about what can happen to all our communities.  Our responsibility is to listen.  If we love the places in which we live, we need to speak up and protect them for the generations yet to come.

Richard Lachance

Kent South NO SHALE GAS Kent Sud

KentSouthNSG.blogspot.ca

9 September 2013