Teresa’s Story: Alberta Farmer Speaks Out About Multi-Billion Dollar Well Cleanup Crisis. Poisoning Alberta, families, livestock, pets, wildlife, water, air, land, has always been AER’s and provincial and federal gov’ts’ plan. If not, something responsible would have been done decades ago.
AER irresponsibly brushed Teresa’s concerns off with “it’s just natural gas.”
Fuck!
Sour gas, H2S can kill in seconds, and tiny amounts damages the brain. If you smell the wretched stink of sour gas, notably from frac’d oil in areas such as SK, Ontario, Alberta, NEBC, Manitoba, it’s already damaged your brain and nervous system.
Albertans need to wake up!
Alberta courts ruled in my case that AER has no duty of care to any Albertan, air, land, water, livestock, wildlife, fish, public health, climate, etc. No matter how deadly the fossil fuel industry behaves – with or without regulations.
No regulations make frac’ing safe! None. Regulations being heeded by companies will not protect you, your loved ones, your home, barns, pets, livestock, aquifers, air, etc.
Teresa lives near Vermillion, AB and has been struggling for years with unexplained health issues occurring in her children, her animals and herself. After being ignored by the company and the AER about the terrible odors from the two wells on her home quarter, experts show huge amounts of air contaminants being vented from the wells and leaking into her home.
Teresa’s story is but one of thousands, as more and more rural Albertan landowners speak out about the impacts of oil and gas companies’ “drill and dash” practices, an energy regulator failing to enforce existing rules, and an industry-adjacent provincial government keen to let big polluters off the hook for cleanup costs.
Alberta’s 2025 Mature Asset Strategy report, meant to outline the province’s new strategy for accelerating closure of aging oil and gas wells, made headlines for recommending shifting cleanup obligations away from the fossil fuel industry. Come on! I am so sick of synergizing NGOs harming so many of us poisoned by polluters. It’s always been every Canadian prov and fed gov’t’s plan to hang the citizenry on living with and cleaning up the mostly foreign-owned profit rapists’ toxic shit, including frac-enabling NDP!This worries Albertans across the province, as often, when polluters are let off the hook for cleaning up their own mess, those cleanup costs fall to taxpayers. Or, cleanup doesn’t happen at all.
Despite drawing broad criticism for a flawed development process involving potential conflicts of interest, the Mature Asset Strategy’s recommendations are already starting to be implemented by the Alberta government. For this reason, a growing chorus of rural and urban Albertans alike are speaking out against the province’s handling of the oil and gas well cleanup crisis, demanding that Alberta make polluters clean up their own mess.
There are currently nearly 330,000 unreclaimed oil and gas wells across Alberta. Liabilities for closure of these oil and gas wells are estimated to be approximately $100 billion, with experts saying it might be much more.
Learn more at ecojustice.ca/LandownerStories
Optical gas imaging courtesy of Tim Doty and David Suzuki Foundation Videography by Tom Prilesky
Vermillion, AB – More and more rural Albertans are speaking up about their mistreatment by oil and gas companies and the provincial government’s failure to address the growing crisis of aging oil and gas wells across the province.
Teresa lives near Vermillion, AB and has been struggling for years with unexplained health issues in her children, her animals and herself. See the moment where she learned the truth about what was behind it:
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Teresa’s story is one of thousands in Alberta, where over 300,000 oil and gas wells either need to be cleaned up now, or will in the near future — with an estimated $100 billion price tag.
Today, more and more rural landowners are speaking out the impacts of oil and gas companies’ “drill and dash” practices, an energy regulator failing to enforce existing rules, and an industry-adjacent provincial government keen to let big polluters off the hook for cleanup costs.
“They came to drill the wells in about 2005, 06. We did a lease agreement on our home quarter for the two wells. They said, “You won’t even really know we’re here.” The first sign that something was wrong, was one day I remember drawing a bath — and the water was dark.”
According to Ecojustice Canada’s new series, “Landowner Stories, Alberta landowners have been left facing “poisoned land, lost income, and broken promises, while the true cost of abandonment piles up on their shoulders. More and more Albertans are speaking out about how the social license given to oil and gas companies has been broken. It was broken decades ago – and triply broken early in the frac years when companies contaminated water wells across the province and had frac out after frac out. But most harmed Albertans are eager for the lease money so for the most part, are silent when frac’ers invade, or, are too cowardly while believing the oil and gas industry is Alberta’s Jesus, so one must happily allow companies to renege on rent (and even not paying royalties for those who own mineral rights) and allow them to poison us – kids and livestock and all.The province, the regulator and the industry have not upheld their end of the Grand Bargain.”
“My daughter was little. She wanted some goats, and they were in the pen just near that one well. They started aborting, which was odd, it was a pretty good quantity of them aborting. The next winter we put them somewhere else. The aborting quit. It was always when they were over at the home quarter they would abort.
Teresa’s story is part of Ecojustice’s powerful new series of storiesfrom three rural Alberta landowners impacted by aging oil and gas wells. …
I've written a lot about the abandoned well crisis in this country. It's an environmental and climate disaster but also a financial disaster. This new article notes the financial reality about why nothing is done. “They can’t, because it bankrupts the industry as we know it.”
I’ve written a lot about the abandoned well crisis in this country. It’s an environmental and climate disaster but also a financial disaster. This new article notes the financial reality about why nothing is done.
“They can’t, because it bankrupts the industry as we know it.”
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Come on! I am so sick of synergizing NGOs harming so many of us poisoned by polluters. It’s always been every Canadian prov and fed gov’t’s plan to hang the citizenry on living with and cleaning up the mostly foreign-owned profit rapists’ toxic shit, including frac-enabling NDP!