In the early days there was no concern re: the environment. Oil was "stored" in open pits around the country side. Wildlife, pets, even children fell in and were coated in oil (man made tar pits?). Undesirable ingredients were burned off. e.g. light oil skim on top of heavy crude pit at Lloydminster refinery burned off. Big cloud of thick black smoke every day except Monday which was avoided due to being wash day when clothes were hung on external lines to be dried.

First environmental controversy when pit was burned off one Monday, coating everyone's laundry with oil smoke film

First level of consciousness raising in worker safety. Most safety regulations resisted initially: egs. no smoking around highly flammable materials, wear hard hats, wear safety shoes, wear breathing apparatus, avoid handling materials with bare hands, etc.

Now, high degree of concern for safety and environment. Extensive berming of well sites, emergency response teams in place re. leaks and spills, directional drilling combines several wellheads at one site.

Note: this is the technology proposed for increased production from within the Rumsey Ecological Preserve near Drumheller. Existing well sites would be used as bases from which to drill slant wells and a large underground area could be tapped. Previous to slant well drilling, the same coverage of the underground reservoir would have seen perhaps a dozen wells sprinkled across the topography, each with their own well site.