The Price of Oil

National Observer will be honoured by the Hillman Foundation on March 28 in Toronto along with its media partners, the Toronto Star and Global News and four journalism schools - Concordia University, Ryerson University, the University of Regina and the University of British Columbia - for their unprecedented investigative series, the Price of Oil.

“Overwhelming” one resident called it. “Disgusting,” said another who inhaled the smell wafting through this western Saskatchewan town of 2,500 on Jan. 2.

Federal researchers have drafted a proposal that suggests hydrogen sulfide gas, which can kill a person in high concentrations, is a non-toxic substance under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act. Hydrogen sulfide, also known as sour gas, can leak from the wellheads, pipes, tanks and flare stacks of the oilfields.

Ontario is giving a $100-million grant to a Sarnia-area petrochemical company currently under investigation by the province’s environment ministry. Alberta-based Nova Chemicals, which operates three plants in the Sarnia region, is being investigated over allegations it didn’t properly report a Nov. 8 incident at its site in Corunna, south of Sarnia.