From the The Calgary Herald – April 27, 2011

by Kelly Cryderman

CALGARY — A southern Alberta landowner who has long claimed coal bed
methane drilling polluted her well has launched a lawsuit demanding more
than $10 million each from Encana, the Alberta government and the
province’s energy regulator.

Jessica Ernst, 54, is one of
the province’s most outspoken critics of drilling methods such as
fracking — where water, chemicals and sand are blasted deep underground
to break up coal formations and release natural gas.

In a
statement of claim filed at the courthouse in Drumheller, Alta., she
states the failure of Alberta’s Environment Department and the Energy
Resources Conservation Board to investigate her case and enforce
regulations “served as a government coverup of environmental
contamination caused by the oil and gas industry.”

Ernst
claims that a decade ago Encana “began a risky and experimental drilling
program for shallow coal bed methane at dozens of wells in the area
around Rosebud,” a small hamlet northeast of Calgary.

Ernst,
an environmental consultant for the oil and gas industry who lives near
the hamlet, alleges the natural gas giant released a large amount of
contaminants into underground freshwater supplies.

“As a
result, Ms. Ernst’s water is now so contaminated with methane and other
chemicals that it can be lit on fire,” said the legal statement.

None of Ernst’s claims have been proven in court.

In
2008, an Alberta Research Council report concluded the methane found in
the wells in the area was naturally occurring, a phenomenon that exists
in parts of Alberta where underground water supplies come from coal
seams. The report stated that “energy development projects in the areas
most likely have not adversely affected the complainant water wells.”

On
Tuesday, Encana spokesman Alan Boras said the company had just become
aware of the Ernst lawsuit and “as a result we would have to review it
before we made any comment — if we did at all, because it’s before the
courts.”

Alberta Environment spokesman Trevor Gemmell also declined to comment, saying the matter is before the courts.

At the ERCB, spokesman Bob Curran said in an email the board has not been served with a statement of claim.

Ernst
will hold a news conference in Calgary Wednesday, and said in a news
release she will bring her story to the United Nations Commission on
Sustainable Development in New York next week.

Fracking, or
hydraulic fracturing, is a method used by drillers to extract
unconventional natural gas resources being tapped as conventional
supplies run low.

Ernst is seeking damages of at least
$11.7 million from Encana, $10.7 million from Alberta Environment and
$10.75 million from the ERCB.

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