Local developers in the Stoughton-Heward area are hoping to set up a Class II landfill to service the oil and gas sector in their region, by taking on any contaminated soil which results from leakages of spills from oil activity.
Local developers in the Stoughton-Heward area are hoping to set up a Class II landfill to service the oil and gas sector in their region, by taking on any contaminated soil which results from leakages of spills from oil activity.
To that end, Harthaven Waste Management will hold a public information on Wednesday, Jan. 5, at Heward Hall, starting at 7 p.m., where the proposed development will be fully explained to area residents.
Dave Hemphill is the president of Harthaven, and the partners in the company include Ralph Hemphill, Larry Allan and Jim Allan.
The company has purchased a quarter section located about four miles northwest of Heward, and it will be used solely for the disposal of soils which have had oil or salt water spilled onto it at well sites, battery facilities or from flowlines.
The landfill will be lined and monitored, and one cell will have the capacity to hold 300,000 cubic meters of soil, which the developers estimate will last the local oil industry about three years before a new cell will need to be developed. One containment cell will be an excavation of 200 meters by 300 meters, with a depth of five to seven meters, depending on results of the ground water table in the area.
"We won't be dealing with household waste, and we can't take water of any kind, just soil," said Hemphill, who noted they hired Golder Associates of Saskatoon as their engineers, who have conducted extensive tests, including of the ground water, as per the regulations of Saskatchewan Environment.
If everything goes according to plan, he said, they hope to begin construction in the spring of 2011, and hope to up and running by July or August.
One of the reasons the local partners wanted to set up this landfill is to help meet a need of the oil players in the Bakken zone, with the Stoughton area central to a large part of that activity. Without this landfill, said Hemphill, companies like Crescent Point, Painted Pony and PetroBakken have a minimum three-hour round trip to a landfill south of Weyburn.
"This gives them the opportunity to clean up any messes faster. The landfill is necessary, because there's so much infrastructure with batteries and well sites," said Hemphill, pointing out that removal of any soil contaminated by salt water or oil is mandated by the provincial government. For the most part, most of the leaks that need dealing are small ones - but the oil companies are nonetheless required to dispose of such soil properly.
The landfill will have a compacted clay liner, and the primary liner will be a fused high-density polyethylene liner, which will be protected on either side by a sand layer to prevent any damage to the liner. Also a leak detection system will be installed between the primary poly liner and the secondary compacted clay liner, which will detect any leaks of any moisture at all through the liners.
Once the landfill is up and running, Harthaven will begin accepting and documenting shipments of soil waste, and the wastes will be documented for both their chemical makeup and their grid location in the landfill in the event the soils need to be located later.
"We're just trying to put everybody at ease. There's no other farm residence within miles of there; it's about the best place this can be located," said Hemphill.
"We're not doing anything we're not allowed to do," he added, noting he has heard of some concerns by area residents about what might be accepted at this landfill. He said he will have their engineers on hand to answer any technical questions, and they will try and answer any questions or concerns any neighbours may have about the landfill's operation.
