Natural Resources plugs pesky B.C. well after trying for 50 years - Water flow has finally been stopped after numerous failed attempts

By Dean Beeby, CBC News Posted: Sep 27, 2015 5:00 AM ET

Canada's worst plumbing disaster finally appears to be plugged, after a half-century of trial and error that has cost taxpayers millions of dollars. The Coldstream Ranch artesian well has been a soggy headache for the federal government since June 1965, when a team of geologists accidentally drilled into an uncharted layer of pressurized groundwater. The well, just east of Vernon, B.C., immediately began spouting at a rate of up to 3,800 litres a minute, quickly creating a crater measuring almost eight metres in diameter in the middle of a private cattle ranch. "Things got awful wet fast," said Ted Osborn, who grew up on the ranch and now works there. "They just got their well-rigging out of there and the place all around it collapsed." The Geological Survey of Canada spent two years trying to cap the flow, dumping several thousand bags of concrete and other material into the hole. Oil workers from Alberta were brought in to give advice. Officials eventually settled for a solution in 1967 that reduced the flow and directed much of the water, stinking of rotten eggs because of the high sulphur content, into a local creek.But the pesky well would not be tamed. Officials returned in 1979 for another two-year remediation effort. By 2009, things were again falling apart — a Canadian version of the sorcerer's apprentice as the rogue well slopped more and more water across the landscape. The British Columbia government then weighed in. The province demanded "a long-term solution to address the sediment discharge and uncontrolled water flow, both of which contravene federal and provincial regulations and threaten public health and safety, fish habitat and the environment," said a Natural Resources Canada internal document, obtained by CBC News under the Access to Information Act. 'The original Coldstream Ranch well is now closed. One concern was the ground sediment that the water washes into local waterways, potentially choking everything swimming in them. And so began another years-long effort to cap the infamous Coldstream Ranch well. But Natural Resources Canada says it has finally completed the job begun more than 50 years ago. "The original Coldstream Ranch well is now closed," said department spokeswoman Caitlin Workman. "The remediation plan saw … the well permanently sealed." Most of the work occurred this summer. Engineers hired by Ottawa encountered numerous problems, including a spontaneous sinkhole that had to be filled; removal of 40 years' worth of failed technology from the hole, such as a twisted casing and numerous metal screens; and far more concrete poured than was expected. The engineers also drilled a new, controlled "relief well" to take the pressure off the main well, while an older unreliable "relief well' was itself plugged. Officials will be monitoring the site for at least a year to make sure the new plugs don't pop, potentially flooding a nearby road, house and railroad tracks. The latest operation cost taxpayers at least $3.9 million, about $500,000 over budget, though final costs won't be known until next March. Workman said the ranch owner, Keith Balcaen, was not paid any compensation.Ted Osborn, director of projects at Coldstream Ranch, says a relief well at the site will provide much needed water. Osborn, whose father was a Coldstream Ranch manager, is director of ranch projects and liaised with federal officials on the well-capping. "It seems to be working," he said in an interview. "It seems a very high probability that the work has sealed it." The ranch, which has cherry orchards in addition to cattle, is in a dry area and can use additional water pumped under controlled conditions from the relief well. "It was an unfortunate situation … but the water can be used to good advantage," Osborn said.