{"id":30599,"date":"2018-02-06T10:56:40","date_gmt":"2018-02-06T15:56:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=30599"},"modified":"2018-02-06T10:56:40","modified_gmt":"2018-02-06T15:56:40","slug":"this-vigilante-scientist-trekked-over-10000-kilometres-to-reveal-b-c-s-leaking-gas-wells","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=30599","title":{"rendered":"This Vigilante Scientist Trekked Over 10,000 Kilometres to Reveal B.C.\u2019s Leaking Gas Wells"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3 id=\"page-title\" class=\"page__title title\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.desmog.ca\/2018\/02\/05\/vigilante-scientist-trekked-over-10-000-kilometres-reveal-b-c-s-leaky-gas-wells\">This Vigilante Scientist Trekked Over 10,000 Kilometres to Reveal B.C.\u2019s Leaking Gas Wells<\/a><\/h3>\n<article class=\"node-12601 node node-blog node-promoted view-mode-full clearfix\">\n<div class=\"field field-name-field-bimage field-type-image field-label-hidden\">\n<div class=\"field-items\">\n<div class=\"field-item even\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.desmog.ca\/sites\/beta.desmogblog.com\/files\/styles\/full_width_blog_image\/public\/blogimages\/IMG_1139%281%29.jpg?itok=pgryKCrJ\" alt=\"John Werring in the field\" width=\"826\" height=\"497\" \/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"new-horizontal-social-bar clearfix\">\n<div class=\"new-horizontal-share-wrapper new-horizontal-email-wrapper clearfix last\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden\">\n<div class=\"field-items\">\n<div class=\"field-item even\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\">If you\u2019d met John Werring four years ago, he wouldn\u2019t have been able to tell you what an abandoned gas well looked\u00a0like.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><span class=\"dquo\">\u201c<\/span>We had no idea whether they were even accessible,\u201d said the registered professional\u00a0biologist.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">That was before the summer of 2014, when he headed up to Fort St. John, B.C., on a reconnaissance mission. At that time, much was known about leaking gas wells in the United States, but there was very little data on\u00a0Canada.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">All Werring had to work with was a map of abandoned wells provided by B.C.\u2019s Oil and Gas Commission. Armed with a gas monitor and a metal detector, he headed into what the gas industry calls the \u201cMontney formation,\u201d one of the largest shale gas resources in the world. Shale gas is primarily accessed via hydraulic fracturing, also known as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.desmog.ca\/2017\/04\/06\/what-is-fracking-in-canada\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">fracking<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><span class=\"dquo\">\u201c<\/span>Most of these places, there\u2019s nobody in the field,\u201d Werring said. \u201cYou won\u2019t see anybody for miles and miles. Just well after well after\u00a0well.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">In some areas, Werring \u2014 a senior science and policy advisor with the David Suzuki Foundation \u2014 could detect gas leaking from the wells just with his nose. His curiosity was officially\u00a0piqued.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><strong><span class=\"quo\">\u2018<\/span>Out of sight, out of\u00a0mind\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Fast forward three summers and Werring has now logged more than 10,000 kilometres on B.C.\u2019s oil and gas roads in the hunt for leaking wells. In the process, he has revealed that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.desmog.ca\/2017\/04\/26\/scientists-find-methane-pollution-b-c-s-oil-and-gas-sector-2-5-times-what-b-c-government-reports\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span class=\"caps\">B.C.<\/span> is vastly underreporting<\/a> its \u201cfugitive emissions\u201d \u2014 emissions vented or leaked during the natural gas extraction\u00a0process.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><span class=\"dquo\">\u201c<\/span>The whole city of Fort St. John is surrounded by wells,\u201d Werring said. \u201cThe further away we got from the centre of Fort St. John the worse the conditions were in the field in terms of well maintenance. Out of sight, out of mind. No company was\u00a0immune.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.desmog.ca\/sites\/beta.desmogblog.com\/files\/Groundbirch1.JPG\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&#8230;click on the above link to read the rest of the article&#8230;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This Vigilante Scientist Trekked Over 10,000 Kilometres to Reveal B.C.\u2019s Leaking Gas Wells If you\u2019d met John Werring four years ago, he wouldn\u2019t have been able to tell you what an abandoned gas well looked\u00a0like. \u201cWe had no idea whether they were even accessible,\u201d said the registered professional\u00a0biologist. That was before the summer of 2014, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[94,103,5317,14059,14035,18392,18391],"class_list":["post-30599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment","tag-british-columbia","tag-canada","tag-desmog-blog","tag-emma-gilchrist","tag-gas-wells","tag-john-werring","tag-leaking-gas-wells"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30599"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30599\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30600,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30599\/revisions\/30600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}