Residents near Peace River say heavy oilfield odours that were supposed to be eliminated two years ago have returned.
“It just knocks you off your feet,” Carmen Langer said. His family has ranched in the Peace River area for nearly a century. Langer has had to move his elderly parents into town and the family cattle operation has been all but abandoned.
“When you’re paving in downtown Edmonton somewhere, that’s what your house smells like at night,” he said.
READ MORE: Oilpatch odours return to northwestern Alberta’s Peace region
Langer isn’t alone with these concerns. Community leaders across the region have heard from residents, all of them tired of the odours.
“We as a municipality still get the complaints, we still get calls from our residents when they can smell oil and gas odours,” Northern Sunrise County Reeve Garrett Tomlinson said. “At the end of the day, they shouldn’t have to.”
“Some days are better than others,” Woodland Cree Nation Chief Isaac Laboucan-Avirom said. “We’re very sensitive of the activity that happens on the land, whether it affects the water, the soil or the air.”
READ MORE: Ill wind: Alberta families leaving homes for health reasons blame oil giants next door
In 2014, the Alberta Energy Regulator held an inquiry into the odours and issued a directive with stronger rules on emissions. Families say the odours disappeared at first, but this past winter they came back.
Residents now want a permanent AER presence in Peace River. The nearest office right now is in Grande Prairie, 200 kilometres away.
“We call the AER at seven in the morning, they get here at three in the afternoon,” a frustrated Langer said. “By the time they get their assignment and get in their vehicle, the sun is up and the gas is gone.”
The regulator has posted a job opening for an inspector in the Peace River area.
More than 1,000 inspections have been done by the AER since the directive was issued and companies have been found to be 99 per cent compliant.
“As an industry, we’re committed to continual improvement and working with the regulator to ensure compliance and enforcement where necessary,” David Gowland, the Manager of Alberta Operations with the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, said.
“Currently, about 85 per cent of all gas is conserved, and all new projects are achieving nearly 100 per cent,” he added.