An Alberta-based oil company has been fined $45,000 for failing to decommission two wells in British Columbia.
Under the Canada Environmental Protection Act's polluter pays model, industry is expected to cover the cost of environmental cleanup at no cost to the taxpayer. When it comes to oil and gas wells, that means permanently sealing an inactive well with cement, cleaning up contamination and bringing back the land to “pre-activity conditions.”
Polluter pays model falls short By 2018, the number of inactive wells that had not been decommissioned spiked to nearly 7,500, up from 3,800 in 2007. In March 2019, B.C.’s auditor general Carol Bellringer released an independent report that found the province’s oil and gas wells present an “environmental risk and potential financial liability for government.”
A March 2021 report from the BCER said that “barring any unforeseen increases in the orphan population” it planned to restore 357 orphaned sites within a decade of their designation.