Public hearing date  |  Our history in Suffield

Public hearing date rescheduled
A Joint Review Panel (the Panel) is responsible for conducting an assessment of the environmental effects of EnCana’s proposed Shallow Gas Infill Development Project in the Suffield National Wildlife Area (NWA) and making a recommendation to the Responsible Authority, the Department of National Defence.

The Panel has determined that an information request process on the February 2008 submissions of the interveners will enhance the efficiency of the public hearing and ensure that the Panel has the best available information to consider when making its recommendations and decisions concerning the Project. This process will allow interveners to refine or clarify their evidence and allow EnCana to provide a responsive reply submission.

The original hearing was scheduled to begin March 10, 2008. EnCana had asked for a new hearing date of mid-May, but scheduling conflicts with Panel members and interveners has resulted in a new hearing date on October 6, 2008.

More details are available in the Joint Review Panel’s letter to interested parties.

Our history and presence in Suffield
EnCana has been operating on the Suffield military base located in southeast Alberta for more than 30 years. In those 30 years, we have drilled approximately 9,400 gas and oil wells and have consciously taken steps to reduce our environmental footprint. Today, most of the wells in the Suffield area are underground, so in addition to having minimal disturbance to the flora, wildlife and cattle grazing on the land, they have minimal impact on military activities in the area. It is anticipated that the wells in the area will continue to produce for 20 to 40 more years.

EnCana has always recognized the unique biodiversity that distinguishes the area within Suffield that was declared an NWA in 2003. This recognition not only led us to support its designation as an NWA, it also directs the manner in which we operate, ensuring that we employ minimal disturbance techniques that mitigate the impact of our activities.

We are proposing to drill additional wells—approximately 425 per year over three construction seasons (October to April)—in the Suffield NWA to extract the remaining shallow tight sweet gas. This proposal is part of the overall project plan for Suffield that has been in development since 2003 and culminated in the formal project description that was submitted in November 2005.

In May 2007, EnCana filed an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the Project with the Panel, and then responded to information requests and comments on the EIS from various groups and individuals throughout the summer and fall. We are now preparing information requests to clarify the interveners’ submissions filed on February 18, 2008 prior to a regulatory hearing for our Project application scheduled to begin on October 6, 2008. For further details on the hearing process and schedule, please refer to the Joint Review Panel's Suffield Review website.