First, we are very pleased that the TV program Découverte retracted its statement about Marianne Molgat. Ms. Molgat is a Quebecois single mother who worked her way through University in Hull to become a professional geologist. I know Marianne well and like the vast majority of professional geologists I know, she would never break the rules of her professional association by falsifying geological data. It is insulting to her and all professional geologists to have suggested otherwise without any verification. I think it’s a shame that the debate in Quebec has become so hysterical that this sort of suggestion would have any chance of being believed in the first place. Thank you Découverte for your professionalism in setting the record straight.
Second, Découverte concluded in their recent show that treating flowback water at municipal treatment plants is a limited and temporary solution. Industry agrees and plans to recycle during exploitation. We have been very open and transparent about this issue. We are pleased that Découverte agrees with industry’s approach and we hope this will go a long way towards dispelling another myth originating from U.S.-based political groups.
Third, we note some clear cut errors made by some of the people and experts quoted. The principal mistake was to refer to issues from other shale deposits in North America — but every shale is different, as testing filed with the BAPE has shown true for the Utica. Utica shale does not have the same benzene, toluene, or radon problems as some other shale deposits do. It was also suggested we use acrylamides and phenols, but we don’t. All the chemicals we use have been published by Questerre on our web site for almost one year. We do use polyacrylamide, also used in contact lenses, baby diapers and ironically, purification of water.
Industry has a lot more communications work to do before easily-checked clear cut errors will not be widely reported. Nevertheless, in their second show Découverte did a much better job of bringing out real issues rather than just repeating myths. We are making progress.
Note from Administrator: Marianne Molgat is from Quebec and moved to western Canada 10 years ago to pursue a career in the oil and gas industry. She earned a Masters of Science in Geology from the University of Ottawa.
