M.D. OF BONNYVILLE – A proposed carbon capture pipeline that could cross northeastern Alberta brought questions about water, emergency response and long-term safety to the M.D. of Bonnyville council table Tuesday.

Penny Fox, co-founder of No CO2 Pipelines Alberta and a County of St. Paul resident, appeared before council Aug. 25 to share the group’s concerns about the Oil Sands Alliance’s proposed Pathways Project.

Fox didn’t come to council as an industry expert. She came as a rural landowner who says the proposed pipeline would end across the road from the acreage where she and her husband live near Lac Bellevue.

“I’m a regular everyday person,” Fox told council. “I work a full-time job, have a little side hustle,” adding she found herself in the position of potentially becoming an adjacent landowner to the project.

The M.D.’s Request for Decision identified Fox and Amil Shapka as co-founders of No CO2 Pipelines Alberta and said the delegation would address concerns including public safety, groundwater, earthquakes and long-term liabilities. Shapka was unable to attend Tuesday’s meeting.

From ‘just another pipeline’ to a lot of questions

Fox told council she first heard about the project in 2023, as land agents approached property owners in the St. Paul area.

“No one was really concerned at that time. It’s just another pipeline. We were told it was just another pipeline,” she said.

As neighbouring landowners began learning more about the proposal, Fox said the questions grew.

The project is being advanced by the Oil Sands Alliance, formerly known as Pathways Alliance. According to material supplied with the delegation, the alliance includes Canadian Natural Resources Limited, Cenovus Energy, ConocoPhillips Canada, Imperial Oil and Suncor Energy.

The proposed system would capture CO2 from oil sands facilities in the Fort McMurray, Christina Lake and Cold Lake regions and move it through a regional pipeline network. The material presented by the delegation describes a network of more than 650 kilometres of pipelines and a plan to inject and store six million tonnes of CO2 annually.

The proposed network would travel through areas near Cold Lake, Bonnyville and St. Paul, extending south of St. Paul toward Elk Point.

Fox said landowners began organizing, asking questions and attending industry information sessions. More recently, No CO2 Pipelines Alberta and other organizations have been holding their own public meetings.

“We did a town hall here in Bonnyville a couple of weeks ago. We had 75 people show up,” Fox said, adding the group has also been to Cold Lake, Mallaig, St. Paul and Lac La Biche and is now appearing before municipal councils.

Who responds if something goes wrong?

One of Fox’s biggest concerns was emergency response.

She told council that municipalities may not have a permitting role in the project, but local first responders could still find themselves on the front line in an emergency.

“When I asked them who’s going to do the emergency management on these sites, what happens if there is an explosion or rupture or a fire, they all told me that it will be our local responders that will be responding first,” Fox said.

That, she argued, puts municipalities directly into the conversation.

“Are they prepared? Are they trained? Do they have the equipment to do that?” she asked.

As part of its presentation, the group pointed to the 2020 rupture of a pressurized CO2 pipeline near Satartia, Mississippi.

Material provided to council says more than 200 people were evacuated and 45 received medical care following that incident. It also notes that high concentrations of CO2 can displace oxygen and that gas and diesel engines can stop operating in a concentrated CO2 plume, complicating evacuation and emergency response.

Those details were presented by the delegation as examples of potential hazards communities should consider, not as evidence that the proposed Alberta pipeline will experience a similar incident.

Water and underground storage also part of concern

The group also raised questions about water use, groundwater protection and the long-term underground storage of CO2.

Material submitted with the presentation says publicly available project information does not identify facility-specific water sources, required water licences or how much freshwater, saline groundwater and recycled water would be used.

Fox told council her concern extends beyond construction of the pipeline itself to what happens decades from now.

“It is our understanding that that pipeline has a lifespan of 40 to 50 years,” she said. “That’s a long time.”

“In 50 years I don’t think many of us will have to worry about that, but certainly our children and our grandchildren will.”

The delegation also raised concerns about induced seismicity and called for greater environmental scrutiny of the project.

Fox told council she was particularly concerned that the project would proceed without the environmental impact assessment her group wants to see.

“We have asked, many other organizations have asked for an environmental assessment, and we have been told no, it will not happen,” she said.

That was the position presented to council by Fox and No CO2 Pipelines Alberta. Council was not asked Tuesday to determine the project’s technical safety.

County of St. Paul raises the issue too

The CO2 pipeline was already on the M.D.’s agenda before Fox reached the delegation table.

Council also received correspondence from the County of St. Paul about the proposed project.

During discussion of that letter, councillors questioned whether the M.D. had enough information to take a position.

Deputy Reeve Ben Fadeyiw said more information would be needed before supporting further action.

“If we’re going to support this, we need to know more,” Fadeyiw said.

The discussion also included the view that pipelines are already subject to regulatory requirements and risk assessment processes.

Ultimately, council accepted the County of St. Paul correspondence as information.

Council stops short of taking a position

After more than an hour of presentation and questions, council did not endorse No CO2 Pipelines Alberta’s position, oppose the Pathways Project or direct administration to pursue an environmental assessment.

Ward 4 Councillor Ed Duchesne moved to accept the delegation’s presentation as information.

Council carried the motion without further discussion.

For Fox, the goal Tuesday was to make sure another municipality along the proposed corridor knows the conversation is happening.

She said that despite spending much of her professional life encouraging economic development, this issue has taken her somewhere she never expected.

“This is totally not where I ever thought I would be,” Fox told council.

For the M.D., no position was taken Tuesday. But with a proposed CO2 network stretching through the Lakeland and questions now being raised by residents, neighbouring municipalities and advocacy groups, council has heard directly why some of the people living closest to the proposed route want a much closer look.