Alton Update

An Industrial Approval has been granted by the Province of Nova Scotia to approve and place conditions on the Decommissioning Plan for the Alton Natural Gas Storage Project. We are reviewing the province’s approval to determine next steps. As the project now has all approvals necessary to start decommissioning, the timeline for the start of decommissioning activities is expected to begin later this year, or in 2023.

We are committed to decommissioning Alton in a manner that avoids and/or reduces environmental and public safety risks.

The overall goal of the plan is to reclaim the project sites to allow the land to support various land uses. Throughout the process, we remain committed to the ongoing health of the Shubenacadie River estuary.

Our approach minimizes ground and habitat disturbances and associated environmental effects (including erosion, sedimentation, noise and air emissions) associated with decommissioning and reclamation activities.

Development of the plan was guided by regulatory requirements and guidelines, public and community input, landowner obligations, applicable environmental commitments made by Alton, examples of comparable decommissioning and reclamation projects, best management practices and site-specific conditions.

For updates on decommissioning and to review the Decommissioning Plan or Industrial Approval, visit the project’s website, www.altonnaturalgasstorage.ca

Other project updates:

• On June 17 the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board, the regulator overseeing the decommissioning of the three wells drilled at the project’s cavern site, approved our plan for decommissioning the wells.
• A firm with energy industry expertise conducted an inventory of equipment at the river and cavern sites to review what equipment may be suitable for sale/disposal. The firm has prepared an inventory of equipment for sale. Please visit Fuelled for more information.
• We are responsible for ongoing care and maintenance of the work sites, which includes grass cutting on the dike at the river site per direction from the Nova Scotia Department of Agriculture as well as a recent inspection of the aboiteau adjacent to the project’s river site. The grass cutting is also part of our commitment to safety at the river site to help with tick management and to control grass fire risk.