‘It's becoming completely unsustainable’
Occupational health and safety professionals working near Alberta's oil and gas sites face a growing hazard, as landowners have launched a judicial review arguing the provincial regulator is underfunding cleanup of thousands of abandoned "orphan" wells.
Ecojustice filed the application Tuesday on behalf of landowners, alleging the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) set this year's industry levy too low to fund timely reclamation, according to a CBC report.
The AER set the 2026/27 levy at $154 million, up from $144 million a year earlier. Ecojustice argues that figure violates a mandatory needs-based formula under provincial law. A related internal complaint filed last year by two applicants was dismissed on procedural grounds, prompting the escalation to court, according to the same report.
Susanne Calabrese, Ecojustice's Alberta managing lawyer, said the backlog is unprecedented: "There's almost double the amount of orphans currently in its inventory than the Orphan Well Association has ever cleaned in its entire history of existence... it's becoming completely unsustainable," CBC reported.
Calabrese tied the delays to ongoing hazard exposure: "There's environmental risks. It pollutes the land, air, and water. The longer a well sits there, the more likely it is to leak." Landowner Dwight Popowich, of Two Hills, east of Edmonton, said he was told his inactive well would take 10 to 12 years to reclaim.
The AER told CBC News it could not comment on matters before the courts, but said the levy provides additional funding endorsed by the Alberta government as part of its 2026/27 budget.
The regulator said the OWA has decommissioned more than 8,900 wells since 2002, received more than 4,100 reclamation certificates, and fully reclaimed nearly 3,700 sites.
