The provincial government is investigating ways of dealing with sweet gas that has been seeping at the bank of the Sheep River in Turner Valley for the past century.

The Ministry of Culture and Community Spirit, which owns the old Turner Valley gas plant where the seeping is occurring, is currently negotiating with an environmental consulting company to research how to prevent the smell from wafting through town.

Energy Resource Conservation Board (ERCB) spokesperson Brad Olive said the smell residents were complaining about was not coming from a gas leak, but rather from the naturally existing sweet gas seepage along the riverbank.

Lisa Shankaruk, spokesperson for the ministry, confirmed the ministry has known about the odour because it dates back 100 years.

As a result of the recent complaints, the ministry has decided to look into what can be done about the smell.

“We’re working with a contractor to determine the extent of the seeps and potential ways to reduce the odour,” said Shankaruk. “The ground is so porous in that area that there is no way to stop the seep. It’s naturally occurring — the ground is full of gas.”

The Turner Valley gas plant site, owned by the Ministry of Culture and Community Spirit, was built in its current location because of naturally existing gas seeps. Recent complaints to the Energy Resource Conservation Board have prompted the Province to investigate ways to address the gas odours from the natural seeps at the Sheep River bank. Wheel file photo

The ERCB decided to take action after receiving a number of calls in the past week from residents reporting they smelled gas.

Turner Valley Coun. George Wallace said he smelled the odour of eggs, the signature smell of sour gas, on Monday, Nov. 16. Wallace said a combination of things in town could have been contributing to the smell. An old well was reabandoned this summer, Conoco Phillips conducted environmental cleanup in recent months and there are active gas wells and pipelines in town. Conoco Phillips completed clean up at a foul-smelling waste site on Nov. 5 and Wallace said on Nov. 16 a sour gas smell was particularly strong.

“Right where the (Sheep) river meets the road you can smell it quite often,” said Wallace. “We just wrote it off as Conoco Phillips digging upstream. Maybe we shouldn’t have done that. Maybe we should have looked into it to see what else could have been leaking.”

A sour gas smell is a concern, Wallace said, because if the gas has a high enough percentage of hydrogen sulphide it can be harmful to residents.

However, the ERCB determined the smell was actually sweet gas, which does not contain significant amount of hydrogen sulphides, if any.

“The point is, the smell is still coming and somebody needs to deal with it,” said Wallace.

The gas is not coming from the Dingman #1 well, Shankaruk said. It naturally exists in the ground.

The ministry is in the beginning stages of the investigation, negotiating terms with the contractor.

tneely@okotoks.greatwest.ca

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