Fracking Alberta: Ruling advances woman’s tainted water lawsuit

Jessica Ernst launched a lawsuit against Encana and the Alberta government
 after the water near her home in Rosebud was allegedly polluted.

Photograph by: Leah Hennel , Calgary Herald

Documents must be released, says Alberta information boss

By Matthew McClure,

Calgary Herald

April 17, 2012

CALGARY — A Drumheller-area woman’s quest to learn if coal bed methane drilling polluted her well water has been given a boost by the province’s information czar.

In a scathing decision that ends a three-year battle by Rosebud resident Jessica Ernst, the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner has ordered a government agency to release thousands of pages of documents that could reveal how scientists concluded the contamination was naturally occurring.

Adjudicator Teresa Cunningham ordered Alberta Innovates-Technology Futures to refund the entire $4,125 fee charged for processing Ernst’s request because keeping test results, draft reports and even proposed news releases under wraps with no legal basis contravened her right to timely disclosure.

“The amount of severing done and the lack of justification for it has resulted in the applicant being deprived of her rights,” Cunningham said.

“The public body withheld information for reasons that were not borne out by the records, and charged inflated costs for processing the access request.”

The decision is another sharp rap on the knuckles for a government the independent commissioner has frequently criticized for fostering a culture of secrecy.

Ernst said she was shocked but pleased with a ruling that could help her assemble evidence to prove her $33-million legal claim that energy giant Encana Corp.’s drilling near the hamlet southwest of Drumheller contaminated dozens of wells and that a failure to investigate by provincial regulators was part of a government coverup.

“I fully expected the door was going to be slammed in my face once again,” Ernst said, “but instead we have a commissioner’s office that has shown it’s not scared to stand up when the protection of Alberta’s water is at stake.”

The environmental consultant to the oil and gas industry says fracking — where water, chemicals and sand are injected underground to release natural gas — is the reason her tap water can now be lit on fire.

None of Ernst’s claims have been proven in court, and a 2008 report by Alberta Innovates-Technology Futures found that energy development projects most likely have not adversely affected the water wells of residents.

The commissioner’s order will now force the agency to reveal the results of tests on the wells on which it based its conclusions as well as discussions about drafts of the report between its scientists and Alberta Environment officials.

In ruling those records were not advice that could be kept private, Cunningham said e-mails indicated changes in the report appeared to be the result of instructions from the department.“This is a massive victory,” said Ernst, “because it will allow us to finally see the baseline data that was used and how independent this report really was.”

Rob Semeniuk, spokesman for Alberta Innovates-Technology Futures, said the agency will comply with the order to refund the fees and release nearly 6,000 pages of documents.

“We thought we were doing the right thing by not supplying the information,” Semeniuk said.

“We have learned a lot through the process of handling this request.”

Encana did not respond to a request for comment.