Balzac Sour Gas Plant - December 30, 2010

I`m on my Christmas break from work and I left the house around three o'clock to drive out east towards Conrich to see what there was to look at. It was cold today at -20c. To the north I saw large plumes of moisture coming from the Enmax energy plant and the Balzac sour gas plant. I thought it'd be neat to get behind the clouds and try to shoot some pictures.

I remember reading on some blog or maybe it was a photography forum about how some guy won a contest with a photo of an electrical plant in England. There was this large plume of moisture coming off of it. That picture was at night, and was a long exposure and if I recall it was also a black and white photo. Every time I drive on Stoney trail and pass the two plants I remember the England photo and wonder if I`ll be able to capture a similar image. ( update 02/17/11 - I think I found the picture I was refering to here.. )

Today, after seeing the plumes I decided that I wanted to get behind the plants and see what it would looked like. I made my way along some country roads stopping a couple of times to investigate some interesting trees near a barbed wire fence and later I spent some time looking at some snow banks along the side of the road. After a bit of a round about drive I did eventually end up behind the plant. Lucky for me the sun was pretty low.

This is one of the images I was able to get:

Afterwards, when confirming the location, I found out that their going to disassemble the plant in 2011 - mostly because it`s old, and there isn`t enough production coming out of it to justify the cost of the required upgrades. From what I`ve read, it`s been there for 50 years.


Here are a couple other images that I was able to make.

Trees along the fence line. This was just past Conrich.

This is another shot of the gas plant.

Thanks for looking.

brad.