BONNYVILLE – A methane leak from an orphan well in a residential district in the Town of Bonnyville may require demolition of some homes to resolve the issue.
The orphan well is located within the 4500 block between 45 and 46 Avenue.
The Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) directed the Orphan Well Association (OWA) to monitor the area to ensure public safety. OWA located and exposed the well, and installed a soil Vapor Recovery Unit (VRU) to reduce the methane gas volumes observed in the area.
Lars De Pauw, president of OWA, told Lakeland Today, that OWA is also conducting ongoing gas migration testing in the immediate and neighbouring area, and engaged an engineering team on strategies to repair or decommission the well.
“We are finalizing our decommissioning plans but there is a high likelihood that several homes will have to be removed,” to allow decommissioning equipment to access the well, said De Pauw.
He said OWA has been reviewing alternatives to try and figure out the safest way to properly decommission the well with the least amount of disruption to residents. Safety he said, is the main priority for OWA.
De Pauw added they also met with some residents to ensure OWA is taking into consideration their “preferences” to allow for some flexibility.
“Some people might very much like to move,” while some would rather want to stay, and it is a matter of accommodating those preferences when making the final plan to decommission the well, “understanding that we cannot always accommodate every preference,” he explained.
According to De Pauw, timing of when the well is going to be repaired or decommissioned is dependent on when OWA finalizes the purchase and removal of homes.
OWA continues to work with the AER, the Bonnyville Fire Authority, and the Town of Bonnyville.
In a Sept. 19 statement, the Town stated that the 1950s sweet gas well was previously decommissioned, albeit to a different standard from today.
“At the time this area of Bonnyville was developed, there were no requirements to identify historic wells as part of development plans,” according to the statement.
Previously, when developers and property owners applied for a subdivision or development permit, they did not need to identify the locations of abandoned wells, according to information from the AER.
This changed in September 2012 when Directive 079 came into effect, requiring developers to locate and address abandoned wells.
