Natural Resources Committee on Feb. 3rd, 2011

[Dick Harris, Conservative, Cariboo—Prince George, BC]

So the only one left is the NDP, really. Do you have confidence in them?

[Will Koop]

If I might, there was a proposal in November 1994 by the commission on resources and environment commissioner, and what he wanted to enact was legislation that allowed the public to get involved with land-use policy, and he said that they had a legislative right to do so.

[Dick Harris, Conservative, Cariboo—Prince George, BC]

Okay, so--

[Will Koop]

That was his way of--

[Dick Harris, Conservative, Cariboo—Prince George, BC]

I was looking for a succinct answer, but I want to move on.

[The Chair, Conservative, Leon Benoit]

One more very short question, Mr. Harris.

[Dick Harris, Conservative, Cariboo—Prince George, BC]

Mr. Wall, you talked about recycling the water. I think that's an important thing, because technology is moving at breakneck speed, as I understand, in the oil and gas business. I do know of apparatuses now that can take the drilling mud, for example, and turn it into a solid waste, which is easier to dispose of, recapture the water, and then use it again. Where is the recycling technology? Have you got a long way to go, or do you figure you're just about there?

[Timothy Wall]

You have to remember we're pumping this fluid, frack fluids, and we can take some contaminants. We can take high salt content; we don't have to have pure water. So we have the facility set there now that can actually knock out a little bit of the hydrogen sulfide, clean up the water a bit for solids, and it's pumpable water for us. We can use it in our frack fluids.

I think as far as the technology in what we need is concerned, we're there, or pretty close.

[Dick Harris, Conservative, Cariboo—Prince George, BC]

All right, great. You have a lot of confidence in that technology?

[Timothy Wall]

We do.

[Dick Harris, Conservative, Cariboo—Prince George, BC]

Great. Thank you.

Thanks, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Leon Benoit]

Thank you, Mr. Harris and Mr. Anderson.

Thank you very much to all three witnesses. It was a very interesting meeting and very helpful to us in our studies. Thank you all for coming.

The meeting is adjourned.