Marie Lake - Update
Just a update for those who are interested. There is a planned a rally at the Legislature tomorrow, April 12th at 12noon. It will involve some environmental groups about getting policy changed in the development process before a lease is sold. Also a tid-bit from a today's local paper. – It’s time for a change. Environment first industry second.
Marie Lake shows limits needed
The Edmonton Journal
Published: Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Oil companies have a free hand to go just about anywhere in Alberta and mostly that's meant Crown land and farmers' fields. But in the mad rush for new reserves in the current boom, Alberta's lakes are now also under the gun.
Last November, without informing area residents, the provincial government sold mineral rights to an oilsands deposit under Marie Lake, about 300 kilometres northeast of Edmonton. When Osum Corp. sent out notices that seismic work was about to go ahead on the lake, surprised and angry cottagers got organized.
Their protests are raising uncomfortable questions for Ed Stelmach's government, mainly about whether sensitive areas, such as lakes, should be off-limits to exploration. Also, how is it that seismic activity got the go-ahead in such a sensitive area, without any public notification?
The fact is, there's no requirement for the energy department to tell landowners that an oil lease has been sold in their area. Yet selling that lease is tacit approval for oil extraction.
The oil company also has no obligation to undertake public consultation. In this case, though, a barrage of letters from Marie Lake residents to Ted Morton, minister of sustainable resource development, prompted some action. His department told the company to hold three information sessions.
The residents' immediate concern is the potential damage to the fish population from the intense noise and vibrations of the seismic work. But the bigger issue is the prospect of an oilsands operation on a pristine Alberta lake where people have invested their savings in cottages and homes.
"The issue is, are there any limits?" says Don Savard, chairman of the Marie Lake Air and Watershed Society. "Albertans have to look at this and say there is no limit to what the Alberta government will approve."
The energy department is thinking about the estimated two billion barrels in the 25-square-kilometre deposit about 400 metres below the lake's surface, and about all the royalties that will come with extraction.
People can voice their objections at the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board hearings, which give technical approval to specific projects. But it's up to government to consider policy questions, such as whether lakes or other sensitive areas should be off-limits to oil activity, says EUB spokesman Bob Curran.
The Edmonton-based Environmental Law Centre recently suggested that the energy department allow public consultation before a lease is sold. That has some merit in that the objections would be on the table early in the process. Currently, public input at the EUB comes after the company has made a major investment. "The questions need to get asked much earlier," says the centre's Jodie Hierlmeier.
But even that change wouldn't be effective unless the government also articulates environmental standards that could restrict development. Maybe that will come with the long-awaited integrated land-use strategy that may assign zones for different industrial activities.
The Klein government's strategy was to have the doors wide open to oil activity. The ensuing rush for land is taking oil companies into all corners of the province. Not all Albertans are happy about that. Stelmach will have to address the issue.
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Marie Lake - Update
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