By Ray Grigg

At first glance, the proposal from Cornerstone Gas seems harmless enough: drill a few test holes in Campbell River's coal seams, check for commercial supplies of methane, pump it out and compress it, then add some local energy to Vancouver Island's natural gas pipeline.

If you don't know what you have, how can you prove it has changed? It is good science, and good stewardship of the land and water, to ensure that a comprehensive archive of baseline environmental data is compiled before anyone makes significant changes.

In the context of coalbed methane, which has unavoidably enormous impacts within watershed and local hydrologies, it would be irresponsible to proceed without baseline data collection and a full understanding of local hydrological systems - lakes, ponds, and particularly streams, as well as mapping of groundwater and aquifers.

In fact, in a 2004 report commissioned by the then Ministry of Energy and Mines, Summit Environmental Consultants stated that

“There is ... little data from low-order streams .... This is potentially a critical information gap and baseline water quality monitoring will very likely be needed for at least three years before CBG development.”

PRESS RELEASE: Citizens Concerned about Coalbed Methane – Vancouver Island

Due to plans to develop coalbed methane [CBM] within a short drive of most of Campbell River’s population, a local group wants to raise public awareness about CBM extraction and its potential environmental impacts.

GeoMet and Canada Energy Partners announced the intention to drill 25 wells in the Peace River Project. In the government’s “3-Phase process” for coalbed methane (evaluation/exploration, feasibility/development, production) , this project is the first in BC to move to the feasibility stage.