Province makes restoration of gas plant high priority

Turner Valley: Office and lab rehabilitation to be done by 2014

Tanya Kostiw/OWW

Turner Valley Mayor Kelly Tuck stands at the site of the Turner Valley Gas Plant which is undergoing some restoration work. Although the Province has yet to commit the full $13 million estimted to cover the entire site redevelopment, it did identify the plant as a priority in the 2012 budget.

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Restoration work at the Turner Valley Gas Plant is underway and residents can expect to see it completed by its centennial in 2014.

The provincial and national historic site was identified as a priority for the Ministry of Culture and Community Services in the 2012 provincial budget, but no specific plan or funding have been outlined. The redevelopment of the site, considered to be the birthplace of the oil and gas industry, is estimated to cost $13 million, but the Province has not committed all the funds, said ministry spokesperson Barb Toker.

“The department and the Minister (of Culture and Community Services Heather Klimchuk) recognize the importance of this site to the area and to Alberta as a whole,” she said. “As a result, we have been working with the stakeholders to see what we can do to preserve the site and to have the significance of the activity there with the Turner Valley discovery properly presented. What form that ultimately takes is an ongoing discussion.”

Last year a system to capture natural gas seepage and eliminate the smell of sour gas was completed and the Province is now funding the rehabilitation of the original gas plant office and the laboratory building, Toker said. Planning and design for this stage began last September and geophysical work recently started on site, she said.

“Before they can do anything else, they have to know what they’re dealing with in terms of the foundation,” Toker explained.

The Province anticipates this work will be done in time for the plant’s centennial in 2014, she said. When finished, it will serve as an administrative building and the interim interpretive centre.

However, there are no concrete plans for a more permanent centre as of yet.

“There’s discussions going on with regional stakeholders to see where the project will ultimately go,” Toker said.

Turner Valley Mayor Kelly Tuck said a meeting has been planned with Foothills-Rocky View MLA Ted Morton, Macleod MP Ted Menzies and the MLA for Livingstone-MacLeod Evan Berger, whose constituency will include Turner Valley when the new electoral boundaries take effect once the next provincial election is called.

“The meeting is just to have everybody on the same page,” Tuck said. “I need for them to advocate on behalf of the Town so when council moves forward to find out exactly what the Province is prepared to do with the gas plant and the centennial.”

Turner Valley Coun. Barry Williamson said the reference to the Turner Valley Gas Plant as a priority in the budget speech is promising. Williamson is a member of the Turner Valley Oil and Gas Group, a regional organization which includes industry, local municipalities, the provincial government and the Energy Resources Conservation Board, and he said he hopes the Province will issue an official statement making a firm commitment to have the plant ready for its centennial.

Both the provincial and federal governments have indicated they want the plant to be retained by designating it a historic site, explained Williamson.

“Having it sit there, having all the money they’ve spent to date to make sure that it environmentally is not a risk to the public health or safety and given that they’ve taken it to that stage, it just begs itself now to be used as an economic driver for tourism and to complete that process,” he said.

Williamson added as the federal and provincial government pursue a national energy strategy, the province’s future strategy should be married with its historic footprint.