It’s a decision they were clearly hesitant to make but one they say will better protect the community.
In a 7-1 vote last Tuesday evening, members of Sackville council reversed their position in denying a gas and exploration company the rights to conduct seismic testing on an 18-kilometre tract of land within the town boundaries.
Now, instead, they are hoping to negotiate a deal with the Toronto-based company and they are insisting the same reason they refused Petroworth Resources Inc. access to the land in the first place is the same reason they’ve changed their stance.
“We have discovered that the only way a municipality can protect itself from the risks of seismic testing and any drilling for oil and gas that may take place if they find something is to shake hands with the oil companies and cut the best deal it can,” said Coun. Margaret Tusz-King during last week’s special council meeting.
In July, council shot down Petroworth’s request to conduct seismic testing within the municipally-owned boundaries of the Sackville Basin in the search for oil or natural gas, citing concerns over the environmental risks that could come from the drilling and extraction process.
But the turn of events last week stemmed from the realization that the company, who has already established agreements with about 160 private landowners allowing Petroworth access to the remaining property within the Sackville basin, could still move ahead with blasting and drilling in the area, even around and underneath the town’s 18 acres.
“Oil and gas exploration is going on, whether or not we allow seismic testing within our municipality,” said Tusz-King. “And according to the province and to other experts with whom we have consulted, we have no power to stop this.”
And without an agreement in place, she continued, the company would not be required to conduct any baseline testing on the municipal water system and thus would not be liable for any damage that might be done to the water supply during the testing, exploration or production stages.
“By saying no to seismic testing, we are now in a greater position of risk than before.”
So council rescinded the motion made at July’s council meeting and replaced it with another that will grant Petroworth permission to conduct seismic testing within town boundaries, if the company agrees to specific conditions.
Those conditions include: ensuring baseline testing is done on any private wells within 200 metres of testing, exploration and/or drilling; baseline testing must be completed on the municipal water system, including creating a monitoring well uphill from the town wells so that ongoing water testing can be done throughout the exploration and drilling periods; having an independent assessor do a biophysical assessment of the entire municipality, the results of which would be fully shared with and for use by the municipality; and the company must be open to negotiating other benefits or considerations for the town, including such things as additional economic and cultural support for town programs to widen the possible benefits for the town from the oil/gas industry.
Coun. Merrill Fullerton said he hopes the conditional agreement will ensure better safeguards against the environmental risks of hydrofracking, a controversial process that might be used during the production stage to extract the natural gas from shale deposits underground.
“This is not an ideological debate here (about the benefits and risks of drilling for natural gas) . . . this is about ensuring we’ve used everything at our disposal to protect our water source,” he said.
Fullerton pointed out that because the company has the capability of drilling “around us and beneath us, this is the only recourse we have to stay in the game.”
Coun. Bruce Phinney also reluctantly agreed that compromising with Petroworth seemed to be the town’s best option.
“At least this will give us the legal capacity to go after the company if anything does happen,” he said, adding that he hopes the search for natural gas is unsuccessful.
Coun. Joyce O’Neil, although voting in favour of the new motion, said she wished the municipality had more power to stop the company from drilling if the seismic testing reveals natural gas resources.
“I just think an awful lot of bad stuff can result from this,” she said.
The only councillor to stick to his original stance was Virgil Hammock, who said he thinks council made the right decision the first time around and is not convinced otherwise.
“I don’t (think) this has any place in or around Sackville,” he said, “and I’m not willing to shake hands with the devil.”
Sackville’s chief administrative officer Eric Mourant said he thinks Petroworth will be willing to work with the town in negotiating a deal to gain access to the land.
“We believe they are open to discussion and a potential partnership with the town of Sackville,” he said.
