By MPP Bobbi Ann Brady
The passage of time has a powerful impact, often revealing truths and at times proving it will continue to march on despite a lack of productivity.
Such is the case with the decade-old gas well leak on Forestry Farm Road – a well on Norfolk County property. Despite over 10 years of study, spending, and investigation, the situation is worsening. Dr. Stewart Hamilton, a senior geochemist/hydrologist and one of the accomplished authors of the most recent gas well study report, recently told Norfolk County Council the Forestry Farm Road well is one of the most alarming and significant problems of its kind he has encountered in Ontario. Further, he said the gas well effluent leaking into Big Creek is tens-of-thousands times over regulation levels.
By way of background, the issue dates to a gas well drilled in the 1950s and capped in 1968 when it was deemed unusable. The capping of the well caused other wells in the area to erupt, and eventually, a relief well was drilled. However, in 2015, the province once again capped that same relief well, which contracted scientists and residents are confident created the ongoing problem. The Ministry of Natural Resources has not admitted the plugging created a ‘domino’ effect.
Despite spending millions of taxpayer money, the situation in the area has worsened, with no relief provided to residents. Time has marched on with no productivity. Time is proving politics has been played with this issue in a few ways. The Ministry refuses to admit the 2015 plugging is the issue because it would open Pandora’s Box concerning other leaking wells across Ontario. But the truth is, Norfolk County does not have the expertise to deal with the situation, and the previous mayor expressed this on more than one occasion throughout her entire term in office.
After years of spending money on competing studies, Norfolk County should have at some point demanded the province assume leadership for the issue. Over two years ago, in the Ontario Legislature, I urged the Minister of Natural Resources to lean on the Federal Government for funding, like the amounts spent in Western Canada, and to assume responsibility.
Instead, we have witnessed pockets of money sent by the province, which the County has celebrated and touted as successes despite no definitive solutions. At the all-candidates night in Simcoe during the winter election, I called on the mayor (PC candidate) to join me in my call to have the province assume leadership. My invitation went unanswered.
In a recent CBC interview, I expressed my belief that the people of Forestry Farm Road have been the victims of politics. I must have struck a nerve because the mayor responded with a terse written statement.
While flattering news releases were drafted and photos taken at the County the past few years, not only has taxpayer money been wasted, but the good people around Forestry Farm Road continue to battle not only smell but physical effects like burning eyes and throats, headaches and nausea – not to mention the constant worry about long-term exposure. If this well were on private property, I would bet the landowner would have been ordered to rectify the situation immediately, not over ten years.
I have reached out to Norfolk County on this issue, but I have been blocked from meetings, including those at AMO and ROMA. I hope, with Dr. Hamilton’s recent report to Council, the mayor and CAO will recognize I am not the one they should be griping about, but rather the province. The time is over to send and celebrate monies in attempt to create the narrative “we are getting the job done.” It is now time to demand the province end gas well hell once-and-for-all.
Bobbi Ann Brady is the MPP for Haldimand-Norfolk