$250000 in community safety projects following Encana gas leak, A Dawson Creek Community Environmental Justice Forum has prompted Encana to allocate money towards new health and safety initiatives by Sean Assor, September 12, 2012, energetic city
On Wednesday, September 12, Encana Corporation announced it will be contributing $250,000 towards community health and safety projects in northeast B.C. The forum’s focus was the pipeline failure which took place on November 22, 2009, resulting in a sour gas leak at an Encana well, located close to Pouce Coupe. According to Encana, the failure resulted from internal erosion of a pipe wall, which was caused by the suspension of sand within the gas stream. The recently held forum gathered representatives of the parties impacted by the leak, also including employees and community members from Pouce Coupe and the Tomslake area. Through open discussions, participants determined it would be appropriate for Encana to provide $250,000 to a variety of initiatives in order to compensate for the incident. Such initiatives include multiple equipment upgrades for the Pouce Coupe Fire Department, including one-third of the cost of a rural interface fire truck, along with emergency evacuation preparedness at Tomslake’s Tate Creek Community Centre and wetlands environmental enhancement projects to be overseen by Ducks Unlimited Canada within the South Peace Region.
Encana also implemented a number of mitigation measures including recommendations from the B.C. Oil and Gas Commission, designed to help prevent this type of incident from reoccurring. The preventative recommendations include the performance of hazard assessments on each of its 1,920 B.C.wells in order to determine where internal abrasion from sand returns may present a hazard, the examination of wells using ultrasonic technology, the inspection of wells’ Emergency Shut Down valves locations, assess air quality monitoring equipment used to detect H2S and review the emergency response and communication systems. [Emphasis added]
[Refer also to: EnCana Corporation facing criminal charges ]