Kennetcook and Noel are rural neighbouring communities in East Hants, Nova Scotia, that have been playing host to fracking wastewater which has been held in tailings ponds there for the past 6 years. Some of that fracking wastewater has also been transported to the Atlantic Industrial Services (AIS) facility in Debert. Triangle Petroleum’s fracking activity in NS started in 2007 with exploratory wells in Kennetcook and Noel, but because there is no proven safe method of disposing the waste, and because there was insufficient consideration of the short-term and long-term impacts of fracking wastewater, they remain in tailings ponds to this day.
Community meetings organized by the NS Departments of Energy and Environment had been planned for Kennetcook (now waiting to be rescheduled) and Truro (which took place last night). The Council of Canadians is pleased the NS government seems to be interested in public consultation on the topic, although the purpose of last night’s meeting was solely to release results of water testing requested of AIS by Environment Minister Randy Delorey (which can be found here).
I attended the meeting in Truro last night, along with members of the North Shore chapter (of the Council), the East Hants Fracking Opposition Group (EHFOG), NOFRAC and other indigenous and community groups attended the meeting in Truro last night. (It was members of EHFOG that have been monitoring the ponds and spotted the recent leak which allowed authorities to try to deal with the contamination http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/fracking-waste-water-leak-in-kennetcook-investigated-1.2500500).
Fracking wastewater is one of many reasons the Council of Canadians is committed to putting an end to fracking across Canada. We look forward to participating in the discussions around alleviating the problems with the wastewater ponds as well as participating in the current review process to address broader issues with fracking, in the hopes of an outright ban on fracking in the province.
North Shore chapter member Brian Gaulke asks a question of Minister Delorey and his staff at Department of the Environment.
Media stories from last night:
http://thechronicleherald.ca/novascotia/1183342-ns-stands-by-new-fracking-waste-treatment
Related blogs:
http://canadians.org/blog/nova-scotia-considering-fracked-wastewater-their-cement
http://canadians.org/blog/fracking-wastewater-leaking-nova-scotia-calls-grow-ban-fracking
http://canadians.org/blog/nova-scotia-ban-import-fracking-wastewater
http://canadians.org/media/nova-scotia-municipalities-add-momentum-push-fracking-moratorium
http://canadians.org/media/nova-scotians-overwhelmingly-support-continued-ban-fracking
http://canadians.org/node/3804
http://canadians.org/node/3803
