Ernst vs ERCB

[ASRG]

Off to court in Calgary today to lend some noral support for Jessica Ernst, in her lawsuit against Encana and the Alberta Energy Resources Conservation Board.
For those not familiar with the story:
Encana destroyed a shallow fresh water aquifer in the Rosebud area (near Drumheller). They illegally fracked above the base ground water protection, against all the rules and regulations. The fresh water aquifer is completely contaminated with methane and several deadly chemicals, and the water is unfit to drink. The water tower in the village of Rosebud actually exploded from the methane in the water!
Encana has tried its best to evade taking responsibility for the disaster and the ERCB, Alberta Environment, and the Alberta Research Council have all tried unsuccessfully to cover up their complicity in the affair.
Ms. Ernst has been smeared and harassed for insisting the oil company and the government do the right thing. You will never find a person with such "true grit" and determination to obtain justice, not only for herself but for every person who is affected by this environmental nightmare called "fracking"! She is in about the sixth year of her battle and has lost just about everything!
Today we'll see if there is any justice left in Alberta.....or if the oil companies have bought the courts.....just like they've bought the government!

[burnt]

Okay you got my attention. Waiting to hear back when you return.

[burnt]

Is there an online newspaper where a guy could follow this story?

[ASRG]

January 17, 2013 11:00 ET

Landmark Alberta Fracking Lawsuit Resumes in Calgary Court-Klippensteins, Barristers & Solicitors

Alberta's Key Regulator Argues It Has No Duty of Care to Landowners and Groundwater

Friday Jan. 18 at Court of Queen's Bench

Suite 705-N, 601 - 5th St SW, Calgary T2P 5P7

10 AM to 4 PM

ROSEBUD, ALBERTA--(Marketwire - Jan. 17, 2013) - Jessica Ernst, a 55-year-old oil and gas industry consultant and scientist from Rosebud, Alberta, returns to court this Friday to continue her multi-million dollar lawsuit against EnCana, one of the continent's largest unconventional gas producers, for negligence causing water contamination.

Her landmark lawsuit also alleges that the Alberta Energy Resources Conservation Board (ERCB), the province's energy regulator, breached her Charter Rights and failed to "exercise a reasonable standard of care, skill and diligence in taking reasonable and adequate steps to protect her well water from foreseeable contamination caused by drilling for shallow methane gas."

Recent Court of Appeal decisions show the ERCB has a history of not upholding its own laws and even the Royal Society of Canada chided the agency for a 2007 incident in which the regulator spied on landowners and damaged "its credibility as an independent quasi-judicial board."

In a court document filed on December 5/2012, the ERCB argues that it is exempt from liability for its actions in the Ernst case and that it owes no "duty of care" to landowners impacted by oil and gas development.

"I suspect that most Albertans will be shocked to learn that the province's oil and gas regulator is arguing that it is totally immune from legal accountability even if there is gross negligence and incompetence," says Murray Klippenstein, lawyer for Jessica Ernst.

Last December, an ERCB investigation found a company guilty of "accidentally" perforating above the Base of Groundwater Protection and contaminating groundwater near Grand Prairie but issued no fine saying the incident "posed an insignificant risk to drinking water resources" in a sandstone aquifer. One third of Alberta's population is dependent on groundwater for drinking purposes.

During the last decade, EnCana perforated and fractured hundreds of gas wells above the Base of Groundwater Protection at Rosebud. The regulators continue to allow EnCana to do this.

In December 2012, only after about 171,000 energy wells were already fractured in Alberta, did the ERCB release draft regulations.

The $33-million lawsuit effectively puts on trial the practice and regulation of hydraulic fracturing: the controversial blasting of both shallow and deep coal, tight sands, oil and shale formations with toxic chemicals, sand and water.

Neither EnCana nor the Alberta regulators have yet filed statements of defence in response to Ms. Ernst's lawsuits regarding complaints of water contamination that took place nine years ago.

EnCana, whose CEO abruptly resigned last week, has been the subject of many recent public controversies. It remains the subject of a majorUS government groundwater study in Pavillion, Wyoming linking hydraulic fracturing to aquifer contamination as well as an ongoing antitrust investigation in Michigan for allegedly colluding with Chesapeake Energy to keep land prices low.

EnCana received record fines from Colorado's Oil and Gas Commission for contaminating water in 2004.

For more information: www.ernstversusencana.ca/the-lawsuit.

Contact Information

Klippensteins Barristers & Solicitors
Murray Klippenstein
1-416-937-8634

Jessica Ernst
1-403-677-2074
Cell: 403-436-2062
contact@jessicaernst.ca

[burnt]

Oh boy.

Thanks for the link.

[grassfarmer]

Better than that burnt she has a whole website.
http://www.ernstversusencana.ca

[smcgrath76]

I wish her luck today. This has huge
implications for this province and a few
others. If she loses there is a very
scary precedence being set about
accountability.

[ALLFARMER]

Good luck

My uncle was the benificiary to a will that was
written up wrong.....dispersed assets essentially 2
ways. He sued the lawyer that wrote up the will.
After 12 years of legal wrangling he gets 585,000
After it taking this long he's waiting to see the chq.

Next tuesday I am fighting a traffic ticket over the
interpretation of an ambiguous sign. It's going to
cost me $450 in lost wages and 100$ for gas over
a 170$ ticket but it'll be fun.

[burnt]

Thanks for the link.

[cpallett]

Read the written materials.

Ms Ernst's lawyers have put together what strike me as impressive legal arguments.

Was not terribly impressed by the arguments of counsel for the ERCB (same old crap) or the Alberta government (weak reasoning).

It will be very interesting to see how this one turns out.

[ASRG]

Basically today was just arguments over what would or would not be allowed.
In my layman opinion Jessicas lawyers Klippenstein and Cory Wanless did the better job with an implied charter challenge.
The ERCB lawyer was good but very focused on Alberta statute law....didn't do a good job of arguing the charter slant that the ERCB had violated Jessica's right to freedom of expression.
The court room was full to overflowing with supporters.
The Judge reserved her decision. Gave a little speech about this being an extremely difficult case. Just watching the judge....I think she was buying Klipperstein and Wanless's points.
Had a good talk with Cory Wanless...his dad Gary Wanless was a lawyer with the Farmers Advocate office for years....as well as owned a farm west of Innisfail.

[ALLFARMER]

The ERCB is a joke and a disaster. It's been quite
clear for many many years they do nothing for
landowners. When they were caught spying on
landowners years ago the government should
have shut the ERCB down and started anew.

Good thing the court room was packed. That will
make it much harder for this to be overlooked
once again.

[grassfarmer]

To expect the Government to have shut down the
ERCB and started over would imply that you believe
the Government didn't back/wasn't behind their
activities. I think that's a false assumption.

[ASRG]

Under Bill 2, the Responsible Energy Development Act, a lawsuit like this would never been possible.
When the oil company fracked the Rosebud aquifer and poisoned it forever, the government regulators said they had no duty or obligation to protect the people's water.....they never did anything....even after the Rosebud water tower exploded!
Thank God for the Jessica Ernst's of this world who stand up and try to hold them to account! It is compltely telling that the Alberta government and the ERCB try to harass her and smear her and send the RCMP out to intimidate her!
Under the new rules of Bill 2....she would be unable to assert her rights in a court of law......this is what our province has become, a fiefdom for Big Oil, where they can ride roughshod over us!

[cpallett]

ASRG,

That was the point of Friday's motion, to determine whether Ms Ernst can sue the ERCB. We will have to wait and see what Justice Veldhuis has to say on the matter. She could decide that the lawsuit against the ERCB cannot go ahead.

The final answer may have to await the decision of the Alberta Court of Appeal, or even the Supreme Court of Canada, should Justice Veldhuis' decision be appealed.