Saskatchewan Farm Impacted by Carbon Capture and Storage Project

 Jan 13, 2011

A farm couple in Weyburn Saskatchewan has moved off their farm because the property is burping carbon dioxide. There were several symptom of concern: deaths of animals and birds (CO² asphyxiates); algae blooms and blue film on ponds; cones of algae in the bottom of a gravel pit; and, “night-time blowouts, which sounded like cannons” that were accompanied by foam (CO² makes those fizzy bubbles in drinks.)

The farm sits on top of Canada’s only working industrial Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) project. The company started pumping CO² underground in 2000. The farmers started noticing problems in 2003 and asked the government to investigate which the government agreed to do in 2007. According to the couple, the government did not do the year-long study that was promised so they hired their own investigator who found carbon dioxide levels 70 times normal. The government says they did air, water and soil samples from the property and found it safe.

So, on the one side we have a farm couple who believe they see concrete evidence that the carbon dioxide sequestration is failing and putting them at risk – enough that they will no longer live on their property. On the other side, industry and government are disputing their claims and saying that the technology is “perfectly safe.”

The government is also assuring people that they would not do anything to put people at risk

Who would you trust – the farm couple or governmentindustry? The farmers are no johnny-come-lately back to the landers. This is a multi-generation farm family and the things they are seeing did not occur prior to the introduction of the carbon sequestration technology.
 

Governmentindustry

I am coining this term as a way to emphasize that in this instance (and most likely most government behaviour these days), government and industry are one in opposition to the farmers. The provincial and federal governments have touted CCS as the solution to our greenhouse gas emissions and they are investing billions into this technology. This investment comes despite the fact that CCS can only ever capture a minute fraction of emissions and large scale commercial projects are a pipe dream. But when you don’t intend to do anything you need to have a cover story to give the pretense that you take climate change seriously.

So we have another example of governments transferring tax payer money to the private sector to stimulate an industry which shouldn’t exist in the first place. And the billions being diverted to this technology means that there is no money available to put toward programs that might actually work.

Equally bad is the possibility that the technology is actually dangerous as the farmers found. If we push huge amounts of carbon dioxide into the ground only to have it seep out or blast out as a concentrated toxic gas, we put people, the land, other creatures, the air and water at risk. Way to go!

Do I believe governments when they say they are looking out for our interests? No. And I won’t until we sever the governmentindustry bond and start governing as if we wish to have a future.