Comment by an Albertan: Is it wrong of me to wonder if industry and AER collaborate/ collude / conspire to pushing the limits until the arbitrary 4 is cracked. (didn’t mean to be punny)
The quakes at Fox Creek suddenly stopped after the 4.0M. Company must have shut er down.
Alberta’s subsurface is one great big methane-leaking, toxic frac fluid filled crackhead mess and getting worse by the day.
Once upon a time, there was an energy regulator in Alberta with acronym ERCB. They did some dirty, so Alberta gov’t changed their name to EUB which broke the law and used citizen money to hire private investigators (retired cops) to spy on innocent cookie-baking grannies and infiltrated harmed landowner client-solicitor privilege so gov’t changed their name back to ERCB.
Cartoon at the end of retired Justice Perras’ 2007 report on EUB’s spying scandal
After my lawsuit went public, gov’t changed ERCB to AER with new legislation, complete with an “Ernst” clause.
In the beginning of Encana’s frac experiments in my community, AER (when it was EUB) and Encana said there was no frac’ing in Alberta.
When water wells were dangerously contaminated with methane, ethane and man-made chemicals used in frac’ing, after Encana/Ovintiv illegally frac’d community drinking water aquifers, AER, CAPP, Alberta Environment, Encana and other frac’ers insisted the oil and gas industry had never contaminated groundwater anywhere in the world. Then, they admitted that industry had contaminated groundwater – once, but never well water, then, yes, it had contaminated well water, but never tap water (where the hell do they think well water comes out of in our homes?) … on and on and on the frac harm denial spins.
When fracquakes rattled Fox Creek Alberta and NEBC (some so severely they damaged energy well casing, which also happened in the UK), AER, CAPP et al said frac’ing doesn’t cause earthquakes. Frac’ing is good for us and the environment they insisted.
Enter 2024:
Now, we see companies fighting among themselves to protect critical infrastructure from frac quake damages they insist never happen! Too funny, too pathetic.
In centre ring we have TransAlta’s Brazeau Dam.
In the corners, fists up, we have Saturn Oil & Gas Inc. (Saturn) and Westbrick Energy Ltd. (Westbrick).
Referee (with predetermined outcome already written) = AER.
Good luck TransAlta.
I expect you’ll lose. But don’t fret, AER will hang us – the citizenry – with costs of any damages to your facility.
Frac Baby Frac!
Frac’ers and their enabling AER are too greedy to appropriately protect anything or anyone.
Criminalize frac’ing!
Notice of Rescheduling of Hearing Proceeding ID 379 by AER.
Saturn Oil & Gas Inc. and Westbrick Energy Ltd. Near Brazeau Dam
The Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) will hold a public hearing for applications filed by Saturn Oil & Gas Inc. (Saturn) and Westbrick Energy Ltd. (Westbrick) to drill wells near the Brazeau hydroelectric facility. A complete list of the specific applications is included below.
The hearing will be at the AER’s Govier Hall, 250, 5th Street SW Calgary, Alberta starting on March 18, 2024, at 9:00 a.m. The public can observe the hearing in-person at Govier Hall. The hearing will also be videocast here.
Should members of the public choose to observe the hearing in-person they should be aware that they may be captured in the live stream video.That’s nothing. AER sends out thugs to write down vehicle makes, models and licence plate numbers on side streets, in parking lots, alleys and around the block, and follow certain Albertans into hearings and any gatherings at the pub after or on your way home. Your presence will be noted, photos of you and your vehicle taken, and filed with Gwyn Morgan, David Parker and his extreme right wing religious Christofascist Take Back Alberta Klan, RCMP, ASSIST, CSIS, CSEC, Harper’s anti-terrorist squad, Bibi and his crimes against humanity enabling, lying retired ex supreme court of Canada judge Rosalie Abella (Israel’s theft of billions of dollars of Gazan gas needs to be frac’d; Bibi’s already handed out licences to major companies, including BP, to extract resources that do not belong to Israel. I believe Abella made up shit, lied in her ruling in Ernst vs AER, to smear me and enable the frac’ers to keep Israel happy – justice Bibi style), Trump, Putin …
The live stream video of the hearing will not be recorded and will not be available for viewing later.
AER and the frac’ers afraid choice bits of the most damning evidence of how harmful frac’ing is, gets posted on social media and uploaded to youtube?
Transcripts of the hearing will be posted on the AER’s website.
The AER issued the following notices in relation to proceeding 379:
- Notice of hearing issued on November 18, 2019
- Notice of scheduling of hearing issued on March 23, 2020
- Notice of adjournment of hearing issued on September 30, 2020
- Notice of rescheduling of hearing issued on June 8, 2021
- Notice of adjournment of hearing issued September 17, 2021
All parties must be present to register at the start of the hearing.
Details of the Applications
Saturn applied under section 2.020 of the Oil and Gas Conservation Rules to drill horizontal wells to obtain crude oil containing no hydrogen sulphide from the Cardium Formation.
Westbrick applied under section 2.020 of the Oil and Gas Conservation Rules to drill wells to produce natural gas containing no hydrogen sulphide from the Upper Mannville Formation.
TransAlta Corporation (TransAlta) filed statements of concern about the well applications. It opposes well applications that involve subsurface activity near its Brazeau hydroelectric facility due to concerns that induced seismicity resulting from hydraulic fracturing could impair the Brazeau facility. Incredibly damning admission.
The facility includes earthen power canal dykes, main dam, spillway, and a powerhouse.
| Saturn applications | Surface location | Bottomhole location |
| 1922830 | 05-32-045-11W5M | 04-31-045-11W5M |
| 1922831 | 05-32-045-11W5M | 05-31-045-11W5M |
| 1922833 | 05-32-045-11W5M | 12-31-045-11W5M |
| 1922834 | 14-25-045-12W5M | 14-36-045-12W5M |
| 1922835 | 15-25-045-12W5M | 16-36-045-12W5M |
| 1922836 | 02-02-046-12W5M | 01-35-045-12W5M |
| Westbrick applications | Surface location | Bottomhole location |
| 1922940 | 10-19-045-11W5M | 12-32-045-11W5M 11-32-045-11W5M |
| 1922941 | 10-19-045-11W5M | 16-30-045-11W5M |
| 1923387 | 04-31-045-11W5M | 16-36-045-12W5M |
| 1923389 | 04-31-045-11W5M | 03-06-046-11W5M 04-06-046-11W5M |
Where can I find information about the hearing?
To view a copy of the hearing materials or find out more about AER procedures, contact the hearing coordinator.
Tara Wheaton, Hearing Coordinator
Alberta Energy Regulator
Suite 1000, 250 – 5 Street SW
Calgary, Alberta T2P 0R4
Email: email hidden; JavaScript is required
Phone: 403-297-8288
Issued at Calgary, Alberta, on January 16, 2024.
ALBERTA ENERGY REGULATOR
Refer also to:
AER regs require frac’ers to notify of quakes at 2M and to shut down at 4M or greater. Has Take Back Alberta into the Cave ordered AER to ignore their regs, let frac’ers frac no matter what?
2024 01 31: 4.0M at 1 km depth (depth later changed to 2.8). Same location as those below at Fox Creek.
2024 01 30: 3.9M at 2 km depth. Frac quakes increasing and getting bigger at Fox Creek, frac central Alberta. Frac’ers better shut ‘er down; AER missing in action – they’re only listing 1M quakes. After I posted this, AER added the bigger quakes that occurred weeks ago but grossly down sized them in typical industry self regulatory data fudgery style.
Snap above from: https://www.volcanodiscovery.com/earthquakes/quake-info/8814224/mag3quake-Jan-30-2024-Alberta-Canada.html
Earthquakes Canada has become unreliable for frac quakes. Seems they list them, but after they figure out they are frac related, they remove them.
2024 01 26: 3.1M at Fox Creek:
Natural Resources Canada lists 6 quakes greater than 2M and 4 greater than 3M and one 4M since Jan 20th alone—all located 56 km west of Fox Creek.
Date/Time (UTC) Latitude (°) Longitude (°) Depth (km) Magnitude Description
2024-01-31 11:42:38 54.296 -117.628 1.0 4.0 ML 54 km W of Fox Creek, AB
2024-01-30 07:59:10 54.293 -117.651 2.3 3.9 ML 56 km W of Fox Creek, AB
2024-01-27 07:08:07 54.287 -117.602 4.7 3.3 ML 53 km W of Fox Creek, AB
2024-01-27 07:07:39 54.288 -117.649 5.5 2.2 ML 56 km W of Fox Creek, AB
2024-01-27 01:52:43 54.293 -117.619 6.9 2.8 ML 54 km W of Fox Creek, AB
2024-01-27 00:56:55 54.291 -117.617 6.9 3.1 ML 54 km W of Fox Creek, AB
2024-01-27 00:54:19 54.312 -117.600 4.1 2.4 ML 52 km W of Fox Creek, AB
2024-01-25 05:23:24 54.280 -117.628 5.8 2.7 ML 55 km W of Fox Creek, AB
2024-01-25 01:25:44 54.276 -117.641 4.3 2.6 ML 56 km W of Fox Creek, AB
2024-01-20 09:43:08 54.272 -117.625 3.8 3.4 ML 55 km W of Fox Creek, AB
2024-01-20 01:08:47 54.267 -117.634 4.7 2.8 ML 56 km W of Fox Creek, AB
Snap below taken Jan 31, 2024 of AER’s quake dashboard, when the quakes larger than 1M were not included:
***
In response to my lawsuit, the Alberta gov’t removed “public interest” from AER’s mandate, when it changed its name from ERCB. I expect AER answers their Emergency Response Phone even less than ERCB did.
On fracquake risks to dams:
2019: Alberta Imposes New Frac’ing Restrictions Near Brazeau Dam after Quakes
…
In a significant development, the Alberta Energy Regulator has acknowledged that hydraulic fracturing operations can impose high risks to critical infrastructure such as dams, an issue of growing concern at British Columbia’s Site C mega-project on the Peace River.
The regulator’s new regulations follow a wave of tremors set off by Canada’s oil and gas industry, as well as the release of major scientific papers documenting how fracking and other forms of fluid injection have caused devastating earthquakes.
Such industry-triggered events, some as great as magnitude 5.7, have destroyed homes, caused landslides, and left taxpayers with millions of dollars of damage in Oklahoma, Korea and in China, where citizens have been killed.
Last week, the industry-funded regulator issued an order restricting fracking activity near TransAlta’s Brazeau Dam located 55 kilometres southwest of the densely drilled Drayton Valley following a magnitude 4.3 earthquake in the region last March.
…
The regulator officially banned fracking within five kilometres of the dam site in the deep Duvernay formation, and within three kilometres of the dam site in the shallower formations above the Duvernay.
It also imposed requirements that any fracking operator in the three-to-five-kilometre zone that causes a magnitude 1.0 earthquake must now report the event to the regulator and cease operations totally if it triggers quakes greater than magnitude 2.5.
…
TransAlta has maintained a seismic monitoring program to protect its Alberta hydro dams from fracking operations since 2013.
…
Gail Atkinson, Canada’s top earthquake hazard expert, called Alberta’s restrictions “a significant development” … she recommended in 2017 that governments ban all fluid injection including hydraulic fracturing within a five-kilometre radius of critical infrastructure (cities, dams, gas storage areas) and maintain a comprehensive seismic monitoring program up to 25 kilometres away to detect anything unexpected and allow for a proactive response.
On spying:
EUB Spy Fiasco: The gov’t we deserve
Canada’s spy agency admits it spies on Canadians ‘incidentally’
“Sickened” by Harper government spying
Petro-state politics prompts CSIS to spy on citizens at alarming rate, FOIs reveal
Lawyer’s suspicions spy agency listened to client calls proven right
When to call a spy a spy? Word wars over the EUB’s hiring of private investigators
Taxpayers Pick up Portion of $22,000 EUB Spy Bill without Explanation
EUB purge, Security unit scrapped, members fired for EUB spying scandal
EUB coverup shocking, Prove to be inept at spying and lying
No one will be disciplined — AEUB, Hiring of P.I.s to spy on opponents was ‘learning opportunity for the future’ If you think the Alberta gov’t’s changing the regulator’s name back and forth and around has cleaned up the dirty doings over at the AER, think again.
AEUB credibility on the line, Alberta Premier defends EUB spying on landowners
EUB fails integrity test by spying on residents
Landowners group says spying episode puts energy board’s neutrality into questionPfffft. The regulator never had credibility or neutrality. It’s a rubber-stamping, scuzz bag abuser and rights violator of the harmed, mobster self regulator for energy companies, most of which are foreign-owned.