Tamarack Valley Energy Ltd. has announced that the four sweet natural gas wells near Cottonwood Park are nearly depleted, with abandonment and reclamation work to begin within the month.
President and CEO Brian Schmidt explains that as the city grows, they’re going to come across areas where they’ve operated in the past.
“We’re working with the developer that wants to develop houses in that area. We’ll go in with a service rig. It’ll take probably four days. We don’t want anyone in the community to think that we’re drilling wells and putting them on. We’re actually reclaiming the land,” said Schmidt.
“What we do is put cement in the well board down. I think those wells are somewhere around 1,000 metres or kilometres deep and we’ll be putting cement plugs in there to isolate it so that it’s safe and won’t be able to leak.
“From there, you go and start to reclaim. If there’s any soil work that needs to be reclaimed or, you know, put it back into its natural state.”
In 2019, both residents and the city council voiced concerns when they weren’t notified of a fourth production well being installed at the site.
It was approved by the Alberta Energy Regulator, and while the city’s planning developer was notified, the information wasn’t passed on.
Schmidt says the company wants to avoid a similar situation by being completely transparent.
“I think to be proactive here this time what we did is, even though it’s not required by regulation, we’re going to do that and reach out to the community and notify.”
Schmidt went on to say that Tamarack has a track record of picking up assets and getting ahead of abandonment and reclamation by putting the sites back to their natural state.
“Our largest reclamation project in the company’s history was conducted just outside the Blood Reserve where we cleaned up a compressor station three years ago, very successful project.”
While Lethbridge City Council had previously made its opposition and concerns known to Tamarack, the City of Lethbridge provided this statement to Global News in response to its announcement of reclamation.
“The City of Lethbridge understands work will soon be taking place to abandon three existing sweet gas-producing wells and one pipeline on the west side of the city. The owners of the well infrastructure, Tamarack Valley Energy, are working with nearby residents and stakeholders to inform them of the work taking place.”
“The removal of this infrastructure is encouraging as it allows for more efficient urban development and community planning in the area. Residents are encouraged to reach out to Tamarack Valley Energy directly with any questions or concerns they may have.”
Daytona Urban Development Corp, the same developer that built the Copperwood neighbourhood, now owns the land on which Tamarack is working on reclamation.
President of Communities, Ross Yaremko, said there are plans in place to develop it, they are just waiting for the reclamation work to be complete.