Drilling rig move set between July 19 & 24

The drilling rig required to remediate a well leaking methane in Bonnyville will move to the residential site in town sometime between July 19-24, according to the latest update from the Town.

On Friday, the Town of Bonnyville released an update from the Orphan Well Association on the operation.

The equipment will require 20 truckloads to move, the shutdown of some traffic, and other controls to safely move the massive drilling rig and related implements to 4500 block between 45th and 46th Avenue.

Two houses and one duplex were purchased by the OWA and have now been demolished to make room to decommission the well.

Before the move, the plan is to install a wellhead on the well and place a wooden matting over the entire set.

Once it gets going, it’ll be two to three days of constant noise to finish the job. The rig, the OWA says, has mufflers which is meant to mitigate the worst of the noise, and light pollution is hoped to be kept at a minimum.

The OWA held an information session in June to give residents some idea of what would be happening.

The well leaking methane was discovered last summer.

They did not reveal how much money they are spending to remediate the situation.