Regulator checks oilsands companies in northwest Alberta for odours by The Canadian Press, June 16, 2014, Edmonton Journal
Alberta’s energy regulator is mounting a two-week, round-the-clock compliance check near Peace River to ensure oilsands companies are following new rules on odour emissions.
Mark Roberts, who was forced to leave his farm last January due to strong odours from nearby oilsands tanks, said Monday he’s hopeful the new regulations will stem the air pollution. “I’m cautiously optimistic,” said Roberts, who still lives in Peace River with wife and baby daughter, and only visits his farm. If the regulator enforces the new rules among the five companies operating in the area, it may be possible to consider moving back home in the months ahead, he said. But Roberts stressed he and his family will wait and see the results of the new enforcement action before making a decision.
After a high-profile public hearing into emissions from Batyex Energy operations, the regulator brought in Directive 60, which requires companies to contain emissions and gives the regulator new powers to order a company to do so. It took effect Monday. The regulator has brought in staff from other areas to help with “the targeted sweep,” said the regulator’s Jeff Toering. The sweep involves two three-person teams moving from oilsands facility to oilsands facility in alternating 12-hour shifts for a week. Different teams replace them after the first week. [What good is a sweep, if you publicize it?]
Companies in the area use an unusual method of heating bitumen in above-ground tanks to separate oil and sand. Baytex was ordered to install pollution control equipment on its bitumen tanks — a practice followed by other companies. Baytex spokesman Andrew Loosely said the company has installed vapour recovery systems on all its equipment in one of the troublesome fields and is on schedule to install them in the other field by the regulatory deadline of Aug. 15. “We applaud those efforts that the AER is undertaking,” Loosely said. “They’ll be out in force, holding our feet to the fire.”
[And will they quickly let go, soon as their PR stint is done and they’ve put concerned, harmed Albertans back into obedient silence?]
Roberts said it’s too bad it took a public hearing to produce new rules. “I’m happy there’s going to be [maybe] some change, but it took them two years to get there,” said Roberts.
Gerald Palanca, who is part of the regulatory team, said inspectors will depend partly on their own sense of smell to determine if the regulations are being followed. But inspectors won’t just follow their noses, he said. Methane detectors will measure gases associated with smelly emissions. Infrared cameras will be able to “see” releases. “We’re not only measuring the odours with the human nose,” said Palanca.
Nor is a one-time blast to the nostrils enough to result in enforcement. “We’re after the very strong and offensive (odours),” said Palanca, who added several things will be considered in deciding whether enforcement is required. “(Is) there … evidence that the site in question is affecting people?” [Emphasis added]
“Some of the witnesses told the inquiry they had problems getting medical care. Karla Labrecque said one doctor she saw in the area told her to move after she said she thought her symptoms were caused by emissions from bitumen tanks near the farm. The doctor also told her about Dr. John Connor whose licence was threatened after he raised concerns about cancer rates among First Nations north of Fort McMurray. In a visit to a second doctor, Karla said she was taken aback when the doctor refused to do a blood test until he had called the local MLA. She did not ask the name of the MLA.
“He said ‘I just got off the phone with the MLA and he says it’s OK to take a blood test and fill out a form.’
“It’s not very good when you go to the doctor to get help and he has to call an MLA.”
“Oil fumes so painful, families forced to move
When she finally met with an ear-throat-and-nose specialist in Grande Prairie who diagnosed her with having airborne pollution, his advice stunned her. “He just told me to move,” Labrecque said under oath at the hearing that ended Friday. “He said… you are just a small, little bolt in this huge robot, and you don’t matter. Move.”
The industry-funded oversight agency heard two weeks of testimony from Peace River residents with health concerns about odours and emissions from the oil sands industry. Labrecque claims the specialist who made the provocative comments was Dr. Mel Delacruz. The Vancouver Observer called Dr. Delacruz at his medical office Friday, but he said he was instructed by his lawyer not to speak about the matter, and hung up the phone.
Unfortunately for Labrecque, her alleged encounter with the doctor was only the start of a sad journey through Alberta’s medical system that ultimately failed to help her know the truth about what was making her, her husband Alain, and two little children sick. The grain-farming family had previously enjoyed northern Alberta’s big skies, fresh air, and the opportunities that came from hard work. But fearing for their health, the family relocated to Smithers, B.C.
Doctors afraid to speak out
An environmental health expert hired by the Alberta government testified at the hearing last week that many Alberta doctors are afraid to speak out against the oil sands. The industry has pumped billions in investment into the region in recent years. Labrecque said Dr. Delacruz spoke to her about the troubles that can come to doctors who connect oil sands to health problems. “[Dr. Delacruz] then proceeded to tell me about patient-doctor confidentiality, and how there was a doctor in Fort Mac who got [dragged] through the courts,” Labrecque told the hearing.
Labrecque says the specialist was talking about Fort McMurray’s Dr. John O’Connor – a family physician who was threatened with having his license taken away for sounding the alarm about cancer rates near the oil sands several years ago. The Alberta Medical Association rallied to his defence. Dr. John O’Connor, a physician who raised concerns about the high cancer rates in Fort Chipewyan downstream of the oil sands in 2006. On Wednesday, Dr. O’Connor said doctors need to be “advocates”.
“It is a very tough position to have to take… to suggest that the goose that lays the golden egg might be causing some health issues.”
“To question the possible connection between… health issues and exposure to pollutants from industry has been a no-go area for so many years,” said Dr. O’Connor.
Broken trust: Alberta family without answers about oil sands’ health impact
Following Labrecque’s encounter with her specialist, odours and emissions near her home did not improve. So under the advice of an Alberta Health Services representative, she went to a hospital in Peace River to late 2012 to get a “toxicity test.” She claims the ER doctor initially declined her. “When [the ER doctor] said ‘you can’t do [the] test’… it’s like, where do you go from there?” she asked. But under pressure from Labrecque and her husband, the ER doctor obtained higher approval for the test. He returned to sample her blood.
‘Useless’ blood test
Labrecque was floored to later learn the blood test she received was “practically useless” for determining petrochemical contamination. O’Connor and one other physician contacted by the Vancouver Observer reviewed Karla’s blood test results (with her permission), and both said, the test could not possibly have revealed oil emission chemicals.
Labrecque was also handed a questionnaire at the hospital designed specifically for patients with “hydrocarbon odour / emissions” concerns. Trouble was, the form had almost no questions about hydrocarbon exposures. Instead, the form quizzed on many other factors, such as medication, stress, travel history, etc. “They were asking me about depression [and such] – it was like they were trying to blame it on something else, and not the [oil] emissions,” she said. Dr. O’Connor says the Alberta Health questionnaire seemed more intent on ruling out the oil sands industry. “I don’t know why in a setting where someone is exposed to petrochemical emissions – that that isn’t a central focus of a form or questionnaire like that.”
“You don’t ignore the elephant – you include it.”
[Refer also to:
A new study has found that certain types of chemical pollutants emitted by Canada’s oilsands tailing ponds have gone underreported for years.
Who is going to test the homes of those of us living in oil and gas fields where companies are releasing radon?
April 5, 2013: Arsenic Uptake in Homegrown Vegetables from Mining-Affected Soils
March 22, 2013: Colorado docs chafe at secrecy oath needed for access to chemical list
August 27, 2012: Doctors fight “gag orders” over fracking chemicals
August 13, 2012: Few studies done on air safety, health effects near drilling sites
November 25, 2012: Dr. David Schindler: Tar Sands Science “Shoddy”, “Must Change”
November 12, 2012: An exploratory study of air quality near natural gas operations
Does Alberta’s legally immune, “No Duty of Care” regulator look for health harm or any kind of harm caused by the oil and gas industry? ]