Robert Barron, Victoria Times Colonist

NANAIMO -- The environmental risks associated with coalbed gas extraction on Vancouver Island are probably not as high as some opponents of the industry make them out to be, says the president of the Canadian Society for Unconventional Gas.

But he said each coalbed gas deposit is unique and it's not known at this stage whether the water -- which keeps the gas in the coal seam in place -- on the Island's large deposits would be harmful to the environment.

In the Nanaimo Coal Basin, stretching from Chemainus to Parksville, the province estimates there is about 300 billion cubic feet of gas trapped beneath the earth and another 800 billion cubic feet of gas in the Comox-Campbell River coal basin.

"It could be that the wastewater on the Island is fresh and the industry could utilize it as a resource that could be used commercially," Dawson said.

"If the water turns out to be potentially harmful to the environment, then the B.C. Energy Plan calls for it to be disposed of in a subsurface environment so the companies would be required to dig a deeper well, perhaps as far down as a 1,000 metres, and inject the water back into the earth."

Dawson said no matter what the state of the wastewater that would be produced by coalbed gas production on the Island, technology exists to deal with it and it's wrong to just assume it will inevitably lead to environmental destruction, as some groups and individuals are suggesting.

Regardless, Dawson said the industry is far from digging any wells on the Island as mining companies are just in the first stages of what is expected to be a lengthy process of dealing with government regulations which would be followed by extensive consultations with the impacted communities before any work would begin.

However, he said as the natural gas reserves that are currently being mined in northern B.C. and Alberta begin to dry up, reserves in other areas, such as on Vancouver Island, will be increasingly valued by the industry.