The Peace Environment Safety Trustees (PEST) is looking to install an internet-monitored sour gas detection system in the Peace area as an upgrade from the current detection system.

“At this point in time, we're the canaries,” said Lois Hill, a PEST member and vocal proponent for stronger oil and gas regulations and increased safety for residents living close to natural gas wells.
Hill will often detect odours around her rural Farmington home but is never sure what those odours indicate.

“We don't have any knowledge whatsoever of what we're smelling… we talk to each other and say ‘I think that's H2S (sour gas) but if we had the system we'd know what we are smelling.”
The PEST AGM was held at the Farmington Hall Thursday evening and featured a special presentation by Chris Gukert of Entegra Controls and Energy Services. In 1996, Entegra won a contract to create an innovative monitoring system in Drayton Valley, Alberta after residents decided they needed direct access to information about the air they breathe.

Drayton Valley is Canada's unofficial gas blowout capital, experiencing some of Canada's worst sour gas well blowouts dating back to the late 70s. This includes the 1982 Lodgepole blowout, which is considered the worst blowout in Canadian history.

Members of PEST recently toured the Drayton Valley's "Pembina Sentinal Air Monitoring Network," and learned there has been a major reduction in gas related false alarms in the four years since the inception of the program.

The system costs over $5,000 for each of the area's 60-plus monitoring sites and requires continuous upkeep. Industry agreed to fund the system at the request of the government and the community.

There have been continual upgrades to the system, which is the first of its kind. Residents can now access a website that displays up-to-date gas-level readings from each of the sites every five seconds.

Gukert painted a grim picture of a community that went from wondering when the next toxic well blowout would take place, to continuously checking their computers to ensure sour gas and sulfur dioxide levels remained at non-life-threatening levels close to their homes.

Hill still believes it's better than the current system of gas detection available in the Peace.

“When we phone OGC (Oil and Gas Commission) and tell them we can smell something they say ‘what do you think you can smell.' Well, we're not the experts,” she said. “If we had the monitor system then we would know what we're smelling. It wouldn't be questionable.”

PEST member and Farmington resident Ken John said he is hoping a warning system could be activated without having to log into the monitoring system.

“People aren't going to be going to a computer in the middle of the night or early in the morning, or any other time unless they've already smelled something,” he said, adding it's incredible the government has not already looked into a similar system.

“The government doesn't allow you to stay in a motel without a smoke detector. In this part of the country they have no regard for the safety of the people stuck in their gas development area.”

While PEST believes the system can bring peace of mind, another oil and gas activist, who took in the meeting, feels the monitoring system creates a false sense of security.

“It's deceptive,” said Wiebo Ludwig, the Hythe, Alberta religious leader, infamous for his battle against the oil and gas industry. “It makes them think when they have one of those monitors that everything is being taken care of and there are oodles of chemicals that do terrible damage to people.”

Ludwig said there is only one real answer to ensure safety when it comes to natural gas.

“The answer is alternatives… leave the dead (fossil fuels) where they are,” he said. “We all know that globally. We talk about it endlessly, but here we have to get a monitor to help feel good about this thing going on and on. It's ridiculous.”