River water safe says Environment

Okotoks Western Wheel
July 23, 2008
Vol.33 No.51

By Tamara Neely
STAFF REPORTER

Water from the Sheep River meets Canadian drinking water standards, despite orange sludge at the rivers edge.
That was the message Representatives of the Alberta government and its consultants delivered to Turner Valley town council and a packed crowd of residents at the council meeting Monday.
Concerns arose on July 7 when Turner Valley resident Roxanne Walsh alerted Alberta Environment to what looks like sludge flowing out of the boulders in the containment wall. The wall is intended to keep pollutants from the Turner Valley Gas Plant from leaching into the river. The appearance raised doubts about how effective the wall is in preventing contamination from entering the river.
Government representatives assured the public the water tested upstream and downstream of the areas of concern are within Canadian drinking water standards.
Sameh Elsayed, senior environmental engineer for the province, described how the three components of the containment system are designed to prevent contamination from entering the river. A bentonite wall prevents flow of contaminants from the site into the river and a water collection system works with the natural flow of groundwater to divert it from the Sheep River and channel it into a water treatment system before being released into the river.
Elsayed said their tests show the containment system is doing its job.
“All the results indicate the containment system is containing the water (from the gas plant site),” said Elsayed. “Hydrocarbons are not flowing from inside the containment system to outside.”
Elsayed said that the discolouration nestled among the boulders of the exterior containment wall is due to iron oxidizing bacteria.
Catherine Whalley, executive director of historic sites and museums, with the Alberta ministry of Culture and Community Spirit, emphasized the system is working.
“We did further testing on July 8 and 9, a second series of tests and the results are all within water safety guidelines and indicate the containment system is functioning as it was meant to,” she said.
Turner Valley Coun. George Wallace said the question remains where the discolouration is coming from and what causes it to appear.
Martin Foy, regional compliance manager with Alberta Environment, said the discolouration in the water present no risk to health, but Alberta Environment will continue to watch the containment system. “Having conclusive evidence with respect to whether the containment system is doing its job is going to take longer,” said Foy. “We will be working with the landowner (the ministry of Culture and Community Spirit) to see what we can do to ensure the site is working as planned.”