A compound used to treat sour gas that’s been linked to fertility issues in cattle has been found throughout groundwater in the Prairies, according to a new study.
Scientists at the University of Guelph and University of Saskatchewan have identified “large contaminant plumes” of sulfolane, particularly in Alberta.
Dr. Erica Pensini, associate professor at Guelph’s school of engineering, says researchers are tracking how it is spreading in groundwater, work that could help identify risks to supplies of potable water.
She says the study suggests that naturally-occurring sulfates (salts) react with sulfolane in groundwater and its ability to “mix more thoroughly with water.”
“Sulfolane plumes travel faster with fewer sulfates, so we’re trying to clarify migration in the context of what can we do to tackle this contamination,” said Pensini in a news release.
“We’re also partnering up with hydrogeologists and eco-toxicologists to explore other aspects that we’re not directly exploring in our lab,” said Pensini.
What is sulfolane?
Sulfolane, introduced to the market in 1944 by Shell Oil, is “widely used” to remove hydrogen sulfide – a process better known as ‘sweetening’ – from sour gas at thousands of sites across Alberta.
Sulfolane is virtually invisible and doesn’t have a particularly strong smell, so it is nearly undetectable in bodies of water.
“In most cases, you would not notice its presence,” Pensini told CTV News in a statement.
According to a 2008 report by WorleyParsons Komex for Shell Energy Canada, sulfolane was first detected in groundwater in the 1980s and, in 1994, a monitoring program was put in place.
A regional sulfolane monitoring program, which began in 1998, detected sulfolane in off-site groundwater near Shell’s Waterton facility.
By 2007, Shell began actively working to remove sulfolane, building on a pilot project conducted in 2003 and 2004.
Nevertheless, Pensini says the toxicity of the chemical was not fully understood, so it was improperly disposed of.
“It was therefore released in aquifers by sour gas and sour oil processing plants. There were 5,250 plants in 2007 (in Alberta), based on official sources,” she said.
“Each of these plants could have released different amounts.”
According to the Canadian government, “the toxicological database for sulfolane is limited.”
“Overall, oral exposure to sulfolane in experimental animals was associated with immunological, renal and reproductive and developmental effects,” the government’s website reads.
Health Canada says the compound is not likely to accumulate in the human body, but that more than 0.3 milligrams of sulfolane per litre of drinking water is unacceptable.
“Health Canada establishes screening values for contaminants at the request of federal departments, provinces and territories (jurisdictions). These requests are usually made when there is a concern for human health because the presence of a contaminant is suspected or detected in local source water and that contaminant does not have an established limit in drinking water.”
The agency says there are no regulatory limits for sulfolane in other countries, but sulfolane groundwater contamination did prompt authorities in North Pole, Alaska, to include it in the U.S. National Toxicology Program.
Research into whether or not sulfolane poses a risk to human health is still ongoing, Pensini says, but some companies have already raised concerns.
“For example, Sigma Aldritch, a leading chemical supplier, lists this hazard in their (safety data sheets),” she told CTV News in a statement.
“There is sufficient evidence for its impact on fertility for these to be officially reported.”
Crews working on a decommissioned sour gas well in south Calgary in 2017. (Supplied/AER)
Shell working with University of Guelph
Shell Canada says it is aware of Pensini’s research and has been working with the University of Guelph since 2022.
“Shell believes a collaborative and cooperative approach with academia is key to improve environmental practices,” a Shell spokesperson wrote in an email to CTV News.
Shell, which has operated sour gas wells in the Foothills – Jumping Pound, Caroline and Waterton – for 70 years, says it has also worked with the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) as well as stakeholders and landholders for the past 10 years.
In 2019, Shell sold those sour gas wells to Pieridae, but it is still responsible for “managing and remediating any impacts at the Waterton and Jumping Pound gas plants.”
Shell Canada did not admit that sulfolane poses a risk to human health, but said its work with the University of Guelph “is an important step in advancing the science.”
Rules in place for companies
According to the AER, the body that monitors companies in Alberta’s energy sector, there are 27,562 active sour gas wells in the province, a figure that does not include inactive, abandoned and reclaimed wells.
Many more are scheduled to be drilled, the AER said in a statement to CTV News.
Contamination still present in Alberta groundwater
Pensini acknowledged that “practices have changed” when it comes to the handling of sulfolane.
“New sulfolane contamination is most probably less significant,” she said. “Filters contaminated with sulfolane are no longer being washed directly into aquifers.”
However, she adds that several decades’ worth of contamination is still present in Alberta’s groundwater.
Pensini says Canadian Light Source, a national research facility at the University of Saskatchewan, has been “instrumental” in understanding the spread of sulfolane.
“We can probe aspects that we couldn’t probe anywhere else, so it is really, really important to us for this research,” she said.
The team’s findings have been published in the journal Physics of Fluids.
(Supplied/AER)
The Alberta government says it’s aware of the study.
“Provincial groundwater monitoring has not detected any notable increases in sulfolane levels in groundwater,” said Ryan Fournier, press secretary for Environment Minister Rebecca Schulz, in a statement to CTV News.
Fournier says the government will be reviewing the study’s findings.
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The body of Ugandan Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei — who died after being set on fire by her partner in Kenya — was received Friday by family and anti-femicide crusaders, ahead of her burial a day later.
Cheptegei’s family met with dozens of activists Friday who had marched to the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital’s morgue in the western city of Eldoret while chanting anti-femicide slogans.
She is the fourth female athlete to have been killed by her partner in Kenya in yet another case of gender-based violence in recent years.
Viola Cheptoo, the founder of Tirop Angels – an organization that was formed in honor of athlete Agnes Tirop, who was stabbed to death in 2021, said stakeholders need to ensure this is the last death of an athlete due to gender-based violence.
“We are here to say that enough is enough, we are tired of burying our sisters due to GBV,” she said.
It was a somber mood at the morgue as athletes and family members viewed Cheptegei’s body which sustained 80% of burns after she was doused with gasoline by her partner Dickson Ndiema. Ndiema sustained 30% burns on his body and later succumbed.
Ndiema and Cheptegei were said to have quarreled over a piece of land that the athlete bought in Kenya, according to a report filed by the local chief.
Cheptegei competed in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics less than a month before the attack. She finished in 44th place.
Cheptegei’s father, Joseph, said that the body will make a brief stop at their home in the Endebess area before proceeding to Bukwo in eastern Uganda for a night vigil and burial on Saturday.
“We are in the final part of giving my daughter the last respect,” a visibly distraught Joseph said.
He told reporters last week that Ndiema was stalking and threatening Cheptegei and the family had informed police.
Four in 10 women or an estimated 41% of dating or married Kenyan women have experienced physical or sexual violence perpetrated by their current or most recent partner, according to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2022.
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A rare Bronze-Era jar accidentally smashed by a 4-year-old visiting a museum was back on display Wednesday after restoration experts were able to carefully piece the artifact back together.
Last month, a family from northern Israel was visiting the museum when their youngest son tipped over the jar, which smashed into pieces.
Alex Geller, the boy’s father, said his son — the youngest of three — is exceptionally curious, and that the moment he heard the crash, “please let that not be my child” was the first thought that raced through his head.
The jar has been on display at the Hecht Museum in Haifa for 35 years. It was one of the only containers of its size and from that period still complete when it was discovered.
The Bronze Age jar is one of many artifacts exhibited out in the open, part of the Hecht Museum’s vision of letting visitors explore history without glass barriers, said Inbal Rivlin, the director of the museum, which is associated with Haifa University in northern Israel.
It was likely used to hold wine or oil, and dates back to between 2200 and 1500 B.C.
Rivlin and the museum decided to turn the moment, which captured international attention, into a teaching moment, inviting the Geller family back for a special visit and hands-on activity to illustrate the restoration process.
Rivlin added that the incident provided a welcome distraction from the ongoing war in Gaza. “Well, he’s just a kid. So I think that somehow it touches the heart of the people in Israel and around the world,“ said Rivlin.
Roee Shafir, a restoration expert at the museum, said the repairs would be fairly simple, as the pieces were from a single, complete jar. Archaeologists often face the more daunting task of sifting through piles of shards from multiple objects and trying to piece them together.
Experts used 3D technology, hi-resolution videos, and special glue to painstakingly reconstruct the large jar.
Less than two weeks after it broke, the jar went back on display at the museum. The gluing process left small hairline cracks, and a few pieces are missing, but the jar’s impressive size remains.
The only noticeable difference in the exhibit was a new sign reading “please don’t touch.”
VICTORIA – The British Columbia government is partnering with a bear welfare group to reduce the number of bears being euthanized in the province.
Nicholas Scapillati, executive director of Grizzly Bear Foundation, said Monday that it comes after months-long discussions with the province on how to protect bears, with the goal to give the animals a “better and second chance at life in the wild.”
Scapillati said what’s exciting about the project is that the government is open to working with outside experts and the public.
“So, they’ll be working through Indigenous knowledge and scientific understanding, bringing in the latest techniques and training expertise from leading experts,” he said in an interview.
B.C. government data show conservation officers destroyed 603 black bears and 23 grizzly bears in 2023, while 154 black bears were killed by officers in the first six months of this year.
Scapillati said the group will publish a report with recommendations by next spring, while an independent oversight committee will be set up to review all bear encounters with conservation officers to provide advice to the government.
Environment Minister George Heyman said in a statement that they are looking for new ways to ensure conservation officers “have the trust of the communities they serve,” and the panel will make recommendations to enhance officer training and improve policies.
Lesley Fox, with the wildlife protection group The Fur-Bearers, said they’ve been calling for such a committee for decades.
“This move demonstrates the government is listening,” said Fox. “I suspect, because of the impending election, their listening skills are potentially a little sharper than they normally are.”
Fox said the partnership came from “a place of long frustration” as provincial conservation officers kill more than 500 black bears every year on average, and the public is “no longer tolerating this kind of approach.”
“I think that the conservation officer service and the B.C. government are aware they need to change, and certainly the public has been asking for it,” said Fox.
Fox said there’s a lot of optimism about the new partnership, but, as with any government, there will likely be a lot of red tape to get through.
“I think speed is going to be important, whether or not the committee has the ability to make change and make change relatively quickly without having to study an issue to death, ” said Fox.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 9, 2024.
