Bonavista Energy, Contaminated Wells, and now a evicted Family by Derrick, April 15, 2014, WestCoastNativeNews
On March 12, Alberta Health Services informed the family that their water had a high level of sulfolane, a chemical used to purify natural gas. Since then, Bonavista Energy has installed water tanks on the side of Royale’s home. The company is also providing bottled water to all residents in the area.
Mersadese Royale-Hepburn
WELL I REQUESTED MY OFFICIAL WELL ANALYSIS FROM BONAVISTA ON FRIDAY – THEY SAID THEY WOULD GET IT FOR ME MONDAY AND EMAIL IT TO ME NO PROBLEM — TODAY THEY CALL AND SAY THAT THEY ARENT OBLIGATED BY LAW TO PROVIDE ME WITH THAT INFORMATION AND THAT I WILL HAVE TO GET IT FROM MY LANDLORDS — LIKE THAT IS GONNA HAPPEN ???!
Family evicted
Royale spoke out about her situation on social media. One day after her story appeared in the local newspaper, Royale says she received an eviction notice from her landlady giving her family one month to get out. “She has no reason to evict us,” Royale said. “Our rent was paid three weeks early.”
Royale is six months’ pregnant and she is concerned she isn’t getting enough information from the company. She says the family wasn’t invited to a recent information night set up by the company. …
Alberta Health Services has issued an advisory for the area on March 14 and continues to monitor water quality.
Residents who live within five kilometres of the plant are asked to use alternate sources of drinking water.
Bonavista believes the gas release occurred before it acquired the property in 2010.
Questions remain about South Rosevear spill
Colin Hennel, spokesman for Bonavista said the presence of Sulfolane was identified in deeper groundwater at the company site on Feb. 28. He said there have been no releases of Sulfolane since Bonavista acquired the facility in 2010.
“It is suspected that historical operations prior to Bonavista owning and operating the facility is the cause of Sulfolane being introduced into the environment.” Hennel said the company is working with experts to delineate and develop a remediation plan for the Sulfolane-affected groundwater.
He said Bonavista has conducted sampling of domestic and stock water wells in the vicinity of the facility and has been offering alternate drinking water to residents.
“Sulfolane has been in use at the plant since the plant has been in operations,” said Hennel. Yellowhead County Mayor Gerald Soroka said learned about the incident through the AHS press release. “No one has contacted me [personally] as of yet,” said Soroka [as of March 17] “Alberta Health and Alberta Environment are looking after this.” Soroka said he was leaving it to the experts to handle the issue. “We don’t have the expertise to deal or understand how this works.”
Nikki Booth of Alberta Environment said the investigation will involve how much the plume — the underground leak has spread, “Because it’s an underground incident it isn’t a thing you can see.” The company is responsible for finding out what caused the leak, and how to prevent it from happening again.
Sulfolane is a chemical used to sweeten sour gas.
Doctor James Talbot, chief medical officer of health for the province said although not much is known about Sulfolane from a health point of view, he said residents whose well may have been infected by the underground leak should err on the side of caution. “As a precaution we’re asking residents who are within five kilometres of the plant to use an alternate source of [drinking] water.” [Why isn’t the company providing alternate water?] He said foods can be cooked in well water but the water must be fully drained before serving.
Agricultural producers were advised to use an alternative water source for their animals if one was available. Producers were also advised to contact the chief provincial veterinarian at 780-427-3448 before shipping animals or animal products from farms in the affected area.
The chief medial officer said people could still bathe or shower in well water because Sulfolane cannot be absorbed through the skin or inhaled through water vapours.
Talbot recommended that residents check the Alberta Health Services website for updates under health advisories.
Bob Curran, a spokesman for the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) said his department is investigating the incident in conjunction with Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resource Development (ESRD). He said the facility continues to operate and that AHS has been dealing directly with residents. Curran said questions about water quality should be directed to ESRD.
Letter From Mersadese
PLEASE READ AND SHARE!!!!!Edson Alberta Family – Poisoned – Left in the dark – and now to be Evicted after speaking out!
I write to you today with tear filled eyes and a very heavy heart. My name is Mersadese Royale. I am 24 years old – My husband and I have 3 beautiful children and a baby boy due in August 2014. We rent a cozy trailer on a beautiful Dairy Farm. Raising our children in a setting such as this has been our dream for a long time. As you may or may not be aware – The Bonavista South Rosevear Gas plant (just outside of Edson Alberta) has been leaking a chemical called Sulfolane into the well that we drink from, for an unknown amount of time. The plant (where our landlady is employed) was aware of this leak for a substantial amount of time before we were notified. We have lived here since December 2013.
Before moving in we asked how the drinking water was and both Landlord and Landlady assured us it was fantastic drinking water. The night we moved in we noticed a very foul odour in our hot water. On December 7th when our landlord came to fix our furnace, we again mentioned that there was something wrong with our water because of the smell. Landlord told us” Maybe it is from the trailer sitting for a couple months because nobody else has complained about the water – we have never had any issues with that”. All the while being fully aware that we were the only house connected to that well. Shortly after that we began to have some health issues that seemed like isolated incidences at the time.
My oldest son Jacob has had chronic nose bleeds during the night, My daughter Brooklyn has had problems digesting and having a bowl movements – most of the time having severe constipation followed by diahreah and stomach aches. My acne got so bad that I had large blisters on my face , I was unable to sleep as they were so sore that I could not put my face to the pillow, my children and husband could not kiss my face and for a while I didn’t even leave my house out of embarrassment.
I have suffered severe abdominal cramping and stomach aches that were not present during any of my other 3 pregnancies. No antibiotics were helping. My youngest son got a sudden lung infection that quickly turned to bronchial pneumonia; we spend two days in the hospital with him.
Feb.24/2014 – Bonavista becomes aware of sulfolane leak. Tells nobody even knowing that there is a pregnant family with children living in the house closest to the leak.
March.11/2014 – We pay Marchs rent in full and Aprils rent 3 weeks in advance – a total of $2800 – which is a lot to our family. – Although March’s rent was 11 days late – the landlords gladly accepted it along with Aprils rent.
March.12/2014 – (Landlord) and ( Bona vista employee) knock on our door to tell me that there is a contaminant in our well. They tell us they know little to nothing about this chemical or what it can do to us – they say they will provide drinking water but DO NOT LET YOUR BABY BATH IN IT OR GET IT IN HIS MOUTH. I express that I am concerned as I am pregnant and they assure me that I do not need to seek medical intervention or treatment – as they were leaving I joking said “ well if my baby comes out with flippers I know who to call” They seemed very nervous and uncomfortable and left . 30 Minutes later Bonavista came with 6 large water bottles and informed us that they would be installing a water system right onto the house. Over the next week workers installed that system, however nobody came to talk to us again for quite some time.
March.14/2014 – AHS leaves the water advisory letter in our door – She did not knock and ran quickly down the driveway when my husband opened the door to get more information from her.
March.21/2014 – The plant holds a community info session – Many people were notified and reminded to go to this meeting – however our family was not notified and did not find out about the meeting until moments before it was to take place – We feel as though this was done on purpose – we were the only family that tested positive and at high levels and were left out of this meeting.
March.24/2014- I made a post on a Facebook group explaining how we are the only family that tested positive and that because we didn’t have internet we were not aware of the meeting – we also were not kept in the loop by AHS DESPITE THEM SAYING ON THERE WEB PAGE THAT THEY HAD DIRECTLY BEEN WORKING WITH ALL INVOLVED– and we also had not spoken or heard from ESRD -which is unacceptable. I expressed that I felt like Bonavista had dropped the ball big time, along with everybody else and that because nobody would answer my questions I would be seeking legal advice. Later on that day a different employee from Bonavista showed up at my door – apologizing saying it was an oversight on their part and that although he could not answer my questions – he would send geologists over the following day to talk to me. – I received both positive supporting messages in my FB inbox as well as some not so kind people making assumptions about the amount of time I have on my hands – and calling me a whiner because I’m pregnant.
March.25/2014- Landlord shows up at my door to tell me that he needs my number for AHS. I give it to him. He then states “ Don’t you forget everything bonavista has done for you guys, They went above and beyond I feel – you guys should be grateful for what Bonavista has done for you, you’re the first ones they helped- you’re not stuck here like me, you can always just move if you don’t like it.” At that time I told the landlord that I understood how it was stressful for him too, being a dairyland farm he must be losing sales on the contaminated milk as I haven’t seen 1 dairyland truck here since the contamination, to which he told me that the milk was fine and he only lost 1 day of sales (although new water wasn’t installed to the cows until today April.4.2014.)???
I also later that day got a call from AHS – I requested the levels of sulfolane and the readings from our well – and she told me she would get them for me. She asked if I had any questions – none of which she could answer as nobody knows about the effects of this chemical on people – she advised me to keep it general after I asked her how fast it will absorb into my placenta and unborn baby – as it absorbs into the blood quickly, one can only assume it absorbs into the placenta as well. At 5pm that evening the geologists from bonavista came by and were also unable to answer any questions I had. I requested my well levels and stuff from them also and was told they would get it to me as soon as possible – I have not heard from them again – nor did they give me my results – When I asked about the plumes on the plant property they said they have no idea and that they have not been tested as of yet???!!
March.26/2014 – I responded to a letter from the Edson anchor newspaper– answering a few questions they had about how it was affecting our family – that article was released on March.31/2014
March.27/2014 – AHS calls to tell me that they got my well sample reading – our well reference number was #447455 listed to a OUR LANDLADY AND BONAVISTA – the reading were 0.150 mg/ per litre of water ( 150.17135 parts per billion) and 0.146 mg/per litre of water (146.166776 parts per billion) she then told me that AHS cut off levels for sulfolane we 0.04 mg/per litre of water (40.045692 parts per billion) – meaning that ours was 3.75 x the recommended levels of AHS.
March.28/2014 – I go to see my family doctor who was shocked that I was told not to seek medical intervention and requested an ultrasound for right away – he knew very little about sulfolane but was happy that I had printed what I was able to find. – Requested an ultra sound for now and one for in June – I also told him of our health concerns.
March.31/2014 – Our story comes out in the Edson Anchor Newspaper
April.01/2014 – We have our ultrasound – results to be sent to family doctor –landlord showed up at our door laughing and handed my husband an envelope- it was a 30- day eviction to have us out by APRIL.30.2014 even though our rent was paid 3 weeks in advance. Upon doing some research I found that they cannot evict us. So I typed up a letter of objection
April.2/2014 – I serve a letter of objection regarding the eviction to the landlord’s residence and post it on their door as they were not answering or not home at the time.
April.4/2014 – Landlady and some bonavista staff were at the barn – we saw later this day that they had only now run fresh water to the cattle.
This is the timeline of how this all played out – we were poisoned by a company – kept in the dark by all involved – and now they are trying to evict us from a property owned by an employee of the plant who poisoned us in the first place – with rentals at an all-time low and with the added pressure of Baby coming in 4 months we cannot move – we don’t want to live here anymore due to all of this – our safe haven has become nothing but a bad dream we hope we wake up from. I only sleep about 1.5 hours a night and my stress level has caused my appetite to be depleted to basically nothing – my husband has to remind me to eat as the stress has caused me to just have a sore gut constantly – I panic when I don’t feel the baby move often and I constantly worry that he is floating in a pool of poison in my body. I worry 24/7 about my children’s futures, and the fact that nobody can guarantee that this hasn’t caused us long term or future health issues – I have sought out legal advice and every lawyer has told us it’s a conflict of interest to work with us and that they cannot give us advice – we are at a loss – we have nowhere to turn for answers or legal advice and feel like the plant and our landlords just want us out of their hair.
We still have not heard back from the plant after requesting our results since March.25/2014. Nobody has asked us how we are feeling or addressed our health concerns and the ESRD has not had ANY contact with us whatsoever. Although new tanks have been put on the trailer for water – nobody can tell us if the pipes or hot water tank have possibly absorbed some of this chemical over time – so we try to only use it for bathing. We just don’t know what to do –
I hope this falls on empathetic ears – and that maybe somewhere – someone will see this and be able to give us some peace of mind
Thank you so much in advance, Mersadese Royale and the Hepburn Family
WATCH: Edson family’s well water contaminated with sulfolane by CBC News, April 14, 2014
An Edson family has learned their well water was contaminated with sulfolane, following a leak from the nearby South Rosevear Gas Plant operated by Bonavista Energy. Mersadese Royale says her family started drinking the water when they moved into a trailer on a dairy farm last December. She, her husband and her two children became sick with diarrhea and headaches. She says the water also had a very bad smell. “It smelled like hard boiled eggs, like a really pungent, offensive odour,” she said.
On March 12 [Bonavista notified the government on March 3!], Alberta Health Services informed the family that their water had a high level of sulfolane, a chemical used to purify natural gas. Since then, Bonavista Energy has installed water tanks on the side of Royale’s home.
The company is also providing bottled water to all residents in the area.
[ Mersadese Royale suffering from severe acne after drinking the sulfolane contaminated water]
Family evicted
Royale spoke out about her situation on social media. One day after her story appeared in the local newspaper, Royale says she received an eviction notice from her landlady giving her family one month to get out. “She has no reason to evict us,” Royale said. “Our rent was paid three weeks early.”
Royale is six months’ pregnant and she is concerned she isn’t getting enough information from the company. She says the family wasn’t invited to a recent information night set up by the company.
In a statement provided to CBC, Bonavista Energy said it reached out to Royale and her family as soon as they learned they couldn’t attend. The company says it will respond directly and quickly to any resident that requires information.
[Bonavista Energy notified government March 3, 2014] Alberta Health Services has issued an advisory for the area on March 14 and continues to monitor water quality. Residents who live within five kilometres of the plant are asked to use alternate sources of drinking water.
Bonavista believes the gas release occurred before it acquired the property in 2010. [Meaning the sulfolane has been leaking into groundwater for 4 years with families not notified until now? Emphasis added]
FRONT PAGE: Family frustrated over well contamination, Area couple concerned about lack of information, health risks by Adrienne Tait, March 31, 2014, The Weekly Anchor
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