In our recent blog post suggesting that the Oil and Gas Commission (OGC) is not properly regulating water use by oil and gas companies in the North East of the province, we didn't directly point out that the province's current efforts to "modernize" BC's archaic Water Act could (if done right) help solve some of these problems.
The post explains how the OGC has been issuing and re-issuing short-term (1 year) approvals to use water to oil and gas companies, allowing the companies to avoid needing to apply to the Ministry of Environment for a licence.
In the view of West Coast, this is illegal. Section 8 of the Water Act clearly indicates that short-term approvals should only be granted where water is “required for a term not exceeding 12 months.” There is no provision in the Act authorizing the OGC to grant an extension, which is in effect what they are doing when they allow repeated short-term approvals for the same project. … In addition to the questionable legality, by authorizing the oil and gas industry’s water use through a series of rolling temporary approvals, the OGC has adopted an extremely non-transparent and unaccountable approach.
Water use by the oil and gas industry is fast becoming a major issue in the Northeast:
The oil and gas industry has not historically been a major water user; however, that’s changed dramatically with the rapid increase in the use of hydraulic fracturing, known to its critics as fracking. Fracking is a process in which large quantities of water are injected into the ground to shatter rock containing oil and gas and force it out of the ground. Not only does fracking use large amounts of water, but it also contaminates that water. The controversies of fracking are manifold, and have been documented elsewhere – including this year’s award-winning documentary, Gasland.
The Ministry of Environment is currently developing a new Water Act. In our view British Columbians can and should demand that the new Act contain measures to control the use of fracking for water and to stop oil and gas companies from mis-using water.
- The government is proposing to guarantee that water flows needed for habitat and the environment are protected. The new Water Act must confirm that environmental flows are given priority over water use by oil and gas companies.
- The current Water Act does not prevent oil and gas companies from pumping as much groundwater as they like to frack. The government has indicated that it may regulate large-scale pumping of ground water – and we need to press the government to ensure that these rules apply fully to oil and gas companies and that these large scale users don’t compromise water hydrology and the water use of small-scale wells.
- The government is considering how to decide who gets what water. The Water Act, if it allows water to be used for fracking at all, should ensure that fracking operations have low priority; water should not be used for fracking until environmental flows, domestic use, agricultural, hydro-power generation and other water needs have been met.
- The new Act should clarify that oil and gas companies need a licence from the Ministry of Environment to use water.
These changes would not, of course, deal with all of the problems associated with fracking. For example, changes to the law to ensure that oil and gas companies can not pollute the water they use for fracking will probably require changes to BC’s Environmental Management Act or its regulations, and not just the Water Act.
Let the government know that you want a strong Water Act by signing the Our Water BC Petition. In addition, tell both us and the government your ideas on what a new Water Act should do to regulate water use by the oil and gas industry.