What Are the Issues?

• VWV will address several environmental and community issues relating to CBM:
  
  • Water disposal and community aquifers
  • Visual effects
  • Effects on wildlife – fish, game and foul
  • Sound
  • Air quality
  • Subsidence
  • Methane seeps
  • Underground fires
    
• VWV will conduct social and scientific studies to more fully understand the specific conditions and issues relating to Nanaimo and adjoining communities affected by the project.
  

Water Disposal

• Properly handled, water has not had a significant adverse environmental impact in Wyoming’s PRB.
  
• The area’s dry environment has been altered by increased vegetation.
  
• Baseline salinity values have remained constant or increased only slightly.
  

 

Visual Effects

• Wells, hardly visible on the terrain.

• Wellhead enclosure blends with surroundings. On Vancouver Island, the enclosures would be camouflaged and/or surrounded with vegetation.

Wildlife

• Minimal monitoring is required, minimizing disturbance to wildlife.
  
• Surface disturbance is minimal in CBM projects – a wells’ footprint is a square with sides of approximately 6 feet.
  
• Pod buildings are the size of a single-car garage.
  
• Compressor sites occupy between 0.25 to 1.5 acres.
  
• Short-term disturbances, e.g. construction, are immediately followed by appropriate remediation and reclamation, such as reseeding with native species of plants.
  
• Any potential effects on fisheries and spawning grounds will be investigated prior to project start.
  
• In Wyoming’s PRB, wildlife does not appear to have been adversely affected, with some species showing an increase in numbers as a result of greater water availability.
  
• Bald eagles perched above a reservoir formed for well water disposal
  

Sound, Air Quality

• Sound:
  
  • Wells and gathering pods are virtually silent.
    
  • Where possible, project will utilize quiet electric motors to drive the compressors. Compressor buildings will be built with sound-absorbing materials.
    
  • Air Quality:
    
    • The project will comply with local and Provincial air quality standards.
      
    • CBM has a low well pressure. Any leaks are immediately repaired.
      
    • No venting is associated with CBM projects.
      
    • No flaring of gas associated with CBM projects.
      

  Subsidence, Methane Seep, Fires

  • Subsidence:
    
    • None has occurred in any of the CBM projects; none is expected in the VWV project.
      
    • Coal mining dewaters the aquifers to a much greater extent than CBM production. No subsidence has been demonstrated in front of a coal high wall.
      
  • Methane Seep:
    
    • Experience in the PRB and other CBM basin operations has not resulted in uncontrolled methane seep.
      
    • Concept of directing coal gas into well bores has traditionally been used by coal mine operators to reduce unwanted gas seep and reduce the risk of fires and explosions.
      
  • No Risk of Underground Fires:
    
    • There is no known risk to inadvertent penetration of air into a CBM well.
      
    • Extensive coal mining experience has shown that even a total dewatering of the coal aquifer does not result in spontaneous underground fires.