Residents and other stakeholders opposed to a renewable natural gas plant in Foothills County plan to launch a legal challenge after the project was approved by provincial regulators this week.
Alberta Environment and Protected Areas issued approval on Dec. 11 for the “construction, operation and reclamation” of the Rimrock Biodigester Natural Gas Facility that would produce renewable natural gas at Rimrock Feeders. The approval expires in 10 years.
“We will be appealing it,” said Benita Estes, one of a group of area residents who say the project should be moved to industrial land along the Highway 2A corridor.
She said the appeal process has already begun.
“The biggest thing is, is that it's an industrial facility. It doesn't belong here,” Estes said. “Gas plants belong in industrial areas, not next door to country residential homes, or anybody's home.”
The approval left her “feeling disgusted and hugely disappointed in our government officials,” she said.
Residents of Foothills County and the town of High River, located about five kilometres east of the site, have been vocal in their opposition since notice of the company’s plans were circulated in the summer of 2022.
About 1,100 people have joined a Facebook group dedicated to the cause, and fundraising has been underway for the expected legal challenge.
Word of approval drew swift reaction online.
“This is so devastating and will have terrible consequences for High River, especially environmental — including our water,” wrote one resident.
The biodigester was initially pitched as a solution to odours coming from the Rimrock Feeders feedlot, but Estes doesn’t think it will have much of an impact on the persistent odour problem that has led to 350 people filing complaints with the province’s feedlot regulator.
There is a smell any time the feedlot pens are cleaned, she said.
Concrete liners were added to the cattle pens in recent years, and before they were put in, nobody complained like they do now, she said.
“Anytime they go out there and start shoveling it up, it makes a stink.
“Now it really has that huge ammonia smell, and that's from the liquids that come out of the cattle,” she said. “They don't get to seep into the ground like they did before.”
Whether the feedlot waste is trucked to a nearby field or to the biodigester, associated odours are not going to change, she said.
The biodigester will use cattle manure from the neighbouring feedlot, along with other sources of feedstock, to produce renewable natural gas that will feed into a low-pressure pipeline to serve the local community, Tidewaters Renewables said in a Dec. 14 press release.
The company expects to produce enough RNG to heat approximately 6,000 homes per year.
The approval demonstrates Tidewater Renewables' commitment to provide clean energy, chairman and CEO Rob Colcleugh said in the press release.
The company appreciates feedback it has received from local stakeholders, he said.
“I'd rather look at an orphan gas well than this thing,” Estes said. “Especially when it doesn't work, because it's not going to work. This whole green thing is becoming very insane.
“That's proven in the fact that (the Government of Alberta) put a moratorium on solar and wind. They didn't include this, but yet, it's justifying itself as being renewable energy.”
The company said construction of the project depends on municipal approvals, engineering and cost estimates, and commercial arrangements.
