Funding helping Lambton County respond to incidents involving old oil wells

Lambton County, where the oil business began, has received provincial funding for equipment and training to help emergency crews respond to incidents involving old and inactive oil and natural gas wells.

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The $105,000 is coming from an Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry initiative to manage risks posed by old oil and gas wells, as well as gas migration hazards.

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“The funding is going to allow us to take on activities that either increase our understanding of risk related to legacy oil and gas wells, or for emergency preparedness,” said Jay vanKlinken, the county’s emergency management coordinator.

That includes purchasing an “air-supported emergency shelter that can be quickly deployed” for “residents who might be out in the elements if there were to be a large-scale evacuation,” vanKlinken said.

The funding will also allow the county to offer hydrogen sulfide-related training to first responders and municipal staff “so they’re aware of some of the risks,” he said.

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Hydrogen sulfide gas set off detectors shortly before an explosion in 2021 on the main street in Wheatley that destroyed two buildings and damaged several others.

The gas is commonly associated with old gas wells in southwestern Ontario.

Oil was discovered in the mid-1800s at Oil Springs in Lambton County and the drilling of wells soon spread to the Petrolia area. Some wells in central Lambton are still in production, but many have long since been abandoned.

“Estimates are we could have approximately 5,000 wells in Lambton County, and many of them have been capped to one degree or another,” vanKlinken said.

“I think it always has been part of our awareness of some of the risks in Lambton County,” related to the historic oil fields, he said.

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The county applied for the provincial funding which is part of $23.6 million the province said it is spending to help manage the risk of old oil and gas wells.

“I think the other thing that we’re looking forward to. . . (is) a provincial risk assessment related to these wells,” vanKlinken said. “Hopefully, it will allow us to build some hazard plans or procedures. . . based on what comes back in the findings.”

The province said previously it is developing a strategy that includes identifying and plugging old oil and gas wells to keep communities safer.

Warden Kevin Marriott, mayor of Enniskillen Township in the heart of Lambton’s oil country, said the recent funding will “definitely help some” but he’s interested in seeing if the provincial assistance continues beyond that.

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Enniskillen surrounds Petrolia and there are areas where development is challenging because of old oil wells, Marriott said.

“There is a lot of area on the edges of Petrolia that would be great for developing if they had the wells dealt with,” he said.

Marriott said some wells dating back to the 1800s can be more difficult to cap and control than more recent ones.

The province says there are records of approximately 27,000 oil and gas wells, primarily located on private land in Southwestern Ontario.

The ministry administers an abandoned works program which supports plugging inactive oil and gas wells with increased risk to public safety or the environment.

It says the program provides financial assistance to eligible landowners and, so far, the province has spent $29.5 million to plug 415 wells across Ontario.

With files from Postmedia

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