2014-18: Less Than 3% Of "Reclaimed" Oil/Gas Sites Visited By Alberta Regulator, Not 15% As Claimed
Documents obtained by The Narwhal reveal that, for the last four years data is available, 2014 – 2018, less than three per cent of oil and gas sites certified as reclaimed have been visited by an inspector from the provincial regulator — a far cry from the 15 per cent the public has been long told.
The data — accessed through a lengthy back-and-forth with the Alberta Energy Regulator’s media team and freedom of information office — shows that since the spring of 2014, more than 9,400 reclamation certificates have been issued, but during that same time period, just 277 sites were actually visited by the regulator for an audit.
This means the vast majority of oil and gas sites are certified as reclaimed without any independent physical assessment by the regulator — and most reclamation certificates are granted by an automated system. This wasn’t always the plan.
In a 2014 report, the Government of Alberta noted there are “randomly selected field audits on approximately 15 per cent of all sites that have received a reclamation certificate.” And at a 2015 landowner oil and gas information workshop, government and regulator officials — including Kevin Ball, senior advisor with the Alberta Energy Regulator — told participants that 15 per cent of sites are visited for a field audit.
But this is certainly not the case under the Alberta Energy Regulator, which oversees the certificate program today. The Alberta Energy Regulator took over handling reclamation certificates from Alberta Environment in 2013. It launched an automated approval system online, called OneStop, in 2016.
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https://thenarwhal.ca/alberta-issues-97-of-reclamation-certificates-without-ever-visiting-oil-and-gas-sites/