Dear Editor;
The United Landowners of Alberta (ULA) will be lobbying the Alberta government to support the efforts and commitment of the Pine Lake Surface Rights Action Group (PLSRAG) – one of the largest and most active surface rights groups in Alberta, to have Alberta Environment and Alberta Agriculture reinstate the funding for a research project that will enable all landowners to determine the amount of lost productivity and revenues that they experienced on reclaimed oil and gas or industrial sites. Funding for this research has been completely dropped at the expense of every landowner in the province.
The study by professional agrologist and certified agricultural consultant Dr. Ty Faechner, has the potential to find the real costs in the loss of long term productivity as a result of energy developments on agriculture lands in the province of Alberta. The study, Crop Yield Monitoring or Reclaimed Industrial Sites in Alberta, was a project with the objective to develop GPS-based, long term crop monitoring of reclaimed industrial sites in the province. The study, which compares yield data gathered from reclaimed sites with that of control areas, gathered data by using yield monitors and GPS equipment, providing an objective means of comparing the crop yields from the two distinct areas over time.
The study shows that one-year monitoring of a site was not enough and that reclaimed sites needed to be evaluated for a much longer period of time than the current one-year Alberta Environment standard.
Alberta Environment’s response to the study was to stop funding it; an action that the ULA condemns. The ULA and PLSRAG urge the Alberta government to again find funding for this important work to continue.
The ULA and the Pine Lake Group believe that these same methods can be used to create data bases to establish the adverse and long-term effects around surface energy structures, over pipelines and under power lines on agricultural land productivity and thus lost revenue to Alberta’s farmers.
In order to complete this valuable research the Alberta government must provide sufficient funding for an expansion of the scope of this study to show what the real costs of energy development are to Alberta landowners so that the landowner has the tools to recover these losses in a fair and equitable manner from the energy industry.
The ULA encourages all landowners to contact their respective MLA’s and voice their concern and support for the Pine Lake Group’s efforts.
Don Bester and Glenn Norman
United Landowners of Alberta