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Gas plant open for another season

The Turner Valley Gas Plant will reopen its doors for public exploration for another tourist season this spring and summer. Alberta Culture and Tourism is opening the historic site for weekend tours May 20 to Sept. 4.
Alberta Culture and Tourism is opening the Turner Valley Gas Plant for another season of public tours. The facility will be open weekends from May 20 to Sept. 4.
Alberta Culture and Tourism is opening the Turner Valley Gas Plant for another season of public tours. The facility will be open weekends from May 20 to Sept. 4.

The Turner Valley Gas Plant will reopen its doors for public exploration for another tourist season this spring and summer.

Alberta Culture and Tourism is opening the historic site for weekend tours May 20 to Sept. 4.

It is the second year western Canada’s first natural gas processing and refining facility has been open for regular tours. It will also be included in the Province’s marketing program for provincial museums and historic sites this summer.

“We will be doing a summer operation at the gas plant similar to what we did last year,” said Catherine Whalley, executive director of historic sites and museum branch with Alberta Culture and Tourism. “It is a year-to-year thing. Our focus is on what we are able to do within the budgeted resources that are approved for us every year.”

This year, the public can visit the facility Saturdays, Sundays and holiday Mondays, including July 3 in lieu of Canada Day, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The Turner Valley Gas Plant has a significant place in the history of the Foothills and Alberta. In 1914, a petroleum reservoir was discovered deep under Turner Valley, becoming Alberta’s first major oil and gas discovery and one of Canada’s most significant petroleum processing facilities.

“It’s a site that resonates with a lot of people,” said Whalley. “This year it’s enjoying 103 years of history.”

The Turner Valley Gas Plant saw 776 visitors last year when it opened for its official first summer as a tourist site from June 25 to Sept. 5.

In summer 2015, fewer than 10 pre-scheduled guided tours took place at the site as the Province worked to complete $1.4 million of rehabilitation work to the lab/office building and added public washrooms.

Three tour guides will be hired to take visitors through the Dingman No. 1 discovery well, Dingman No. 2 well, compressor plant, scrubbing plant, gasoline and propane plant and light plant, which contains an exhibit with numerous panels describing the plant’s operations and history.

“Working to get open every summer starting with weekend operations gets the word out there,” said Whalley. “It creates the beginning of a profile of the site in the public’s mind - the expectation that it can be open on a regular basis.”

The Turner Valley Oilfields Society has been lobbying the government to open the Turner Valley Gas Plant to the public since the late 1980s.

In May 2014, the site opened for the centennial celebration of the Dingman No. 1 well with more than 2,000 visitors and another 446 the remainder of the summer.

Earl Martin, chairman of the Turner Valley Oilfield Society, said Alberta Culture and Tourism’s decision to open the site for public tours again this season is a great next step.

“This will be two years in a row that we’ve had gas plant tours,” he said. “Being open for a longer period of time is great news for our group. We have an extra month and a half. Hopefully we make it to 1,000 visitors.”

Martin expects a great economic spin-off if the gas plant brings hundreds of visitors to the region again this year.

“Getting that number of visitors is going to help the area economically,” he said. “A lot of visitors take the plant tour and go and have lunch or the other way around. Most people spend probably the afternoon in the Turner Valley Black Diamond area. It has to help economically.”

The cost to tour the Turner Valley Gas Plant will be $12 for adults, $10 for seniors, $4 for youths and $30 for families. Children ages six and under are free.

The admission fee will be invested back into the site to cover operational costs, said Whalley.

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