March 24, 2003

Produced Water from Coal Beds

"Produced water" can kill the environment. The Minster of Energy and Mines, Richard Neufeld, didn't exactly say that when he delivered the opening salvo during the March 14th staged cabinet meeting, but he did say "Produced water is disposed of under strict guidelines set out in the Waste Management Act. In some cases, this water is potable. In fact, we have some of that in B.C. today. It can be used for communities and for irrigation or livestock, but the appropriate disposal method is determined after an exhaustive study and review." Neither Neufeld nor his colleague Joyce Murray provided any specifics about any "exhaustive studies or reviews". They did suggest that environmental protection would depend on a voluntary "code of conduct" rather than on statute and regulation.

"Produced water" is the enormous volume of water that is pumped out of coal beds in order to reduce the water pressure and release the methane gas. Unlike natural gas which is on top of oil, which in turn is on top of water, coal bed methane requires the pumping out of enormous volumes of water in order to release the gas. The water may be "potable" but it may also be toxic. In the United States, they have found (often too late) that the "produced water" is toxic.

In response to Neufeld, the Minister of Water, Land and Air Protection, Joy Murray, said "As Dick mentioned, this water can be discharged either into the ground or on the surface. Some of it is quite clean, and some of it is not. It has compounds in it." "Compounds in it" is another way of saying poisons! BC does not have a Ministry of the Environment that will act as an advocate against the poisoning of our water and land. Minister Murray went on to say "The kinds of things that will be in this code of practice include analyzing the quantity of water from a particular set of wells, the quality of water, the location to which that water would be discharged and the part of permitting that the Oil and Gas Commission will do. We'll review and analyze those issues and follow the code of practice so that we do prevent and mitigate impacts on the environment."

BC's environment requires legal protection, but the Campbell government is offering nothing more than a "code of practice" for companies who want to pump polluted waters onto our lands, into our streams, or back into our underground aquifers.

There is a reason that the Campbell government chose to lead its March 14th staged cabinet meeting with yet another rant about coal bed methane. That reason is probably related to the enormous threat coal bed methane extraction presents for our environment.

According to the US Geological Survey (http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/fs123-00/fs123-00.pdf) "To produce methane from coal beds, water must be drawn off first, lowering the pressure so methane can flow out of the coal and to the well bore. This water, which is commonly saline but in some areas can be potable, must be disposed of in an environmentally acceptable manner. Surface disposal of large volumes of potable water can affect streams and other habitats, and subsurface reinjection makes production more costly. In addition, methane is a greenhouse gas; in the atmosphere it acts to trap heat and thus contributes to global warming."

The US federal representative for the Secretary of the Interior in Montana has alleged that firms exploiting coal bed methane have violated the US Clean Water Act (http://www.deq.state.mt.us/CoalBedMethane/pdf/Complaint5-01.PDF).

In Wyoming, an advocacy group's website asserts that "…Wyomingites will loose more in the dollar value of the water pumped on to the landscape and lost forever, than what the state will get in tax dollars." Over 12,000 wells have been developed in Wyoming, and that number is expected to quadruple over the next ten years. Residents fear environmental degradation as the coal bed methane industry is given "guidelines" as opposed to the statutory framework under which coal mines must operate. British Columbians should have the same concerns as government discusses "codes of conduct" rather than strict statutes and regulations for environmental protection.

For further information see: http://www.powderriverbasin.org/index.htm
http://waterquality.montana.edu/docs/methane/cbmfaq.shtml
http://www.deq.state.mt.us/CoalBedMethane/index.asp