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Tlio Acton Free Press thy Feu 3 Election night in Acton Tony Seynuck is pictured here inside a drilling shed In In Ihe mid workers Warren and Lome left and centre Seynuck a number of natural gas finds In Esqucsing and sold Ihcluel to Union Gas for many years Gas riches may await Continued from By July of 1955 Seynuck had four wills in a fifth pending and had started work on a sixth locateda mile and a half cast of A property Beginning August of that year Seynuck found himself in a long struggle against Natural Gas and United Suburban Gas to obtain the franchise for the three towns In March 1956 the decision was finally reached and United Gas won and Seynuck was something of a winner United Suburban forerunner of Union Gas had to buy his gas or it get franchise At the start of the excitement over discoveries he had leased well rights over an area of 10 acres square miles in an area bounded by Eden Mills on the west the Fourth Line on the east Spcysidc Road on the south and Erin Township on the north From press accounts of the many hearings during the battle to bring natural gas service to North Halton comes indications or the optimism of Seynuck and his associates for the future He figured his firm could be ready to distribute its own gas from its own wells within a year of taming the franchise Councillors were worried about Anthoy ability to produce enough gas to serve the area but at the same lime wanted local gas used The two competing firms had arrangements in place to supply gas from larger companies which could get gas from much larger wells in Ontario and from Alberta Officers of Anthony Gas showed councillors at one meeting a comparison tabic demon present volume from the four pro wells were capable of supplying more gas than the total consumed by different Ontario municipalities now using natural gas There lots of gas in tins area old the town fathers of the day He told them there was enough on lap now to serve the likely needs of all of Acton Georgetown and Milton for the first year of service The favored firms were willing to enter into agreements to buy Seynuck but he refused to answer their letters and at one hearing vowed to gas to Halton Natural Gas At every opportunity he pub objected to applications by other firms stating his local gas should be used to supply homeowners first Seynuck thought since his firm had gas it should also handle distribution repeatedly pointed out that until natural gas was found in the Acton area nobody seemed interested in supplying Acton Georgetown and Milton In 1956 Hugh Wharton an officer of firm proclaimed confidently they could produce cubic feet of natural gas daily He noted natural gas was being used since the second gas strike to heat workers shacks for cooking and for heating water used in the drilling operations At a council meeting in January noted he d spent years looking until he found the finest gas Out of nine holes drilled he d found gas In seven By March 1950 Anthony Gas and Oil had leases on CO square miles of land and six wells were in production Two more ex wells were being dug There were other wells not in production too Anthony Gas and Oil would concentrate on ex ploring and producing dec ded since it wouldn t be distributing gas In May what was described as high grade oil was found near well number eight south of Acton An oil expert one Murphy said the oil find could prove to be one of the richest finds in the country That was obviously wrong Only tracings were found In February Seynuck found more gas near Acton biggest yet Seynuck kept exploring moving little further south and made major gas finds in the Hornby area In 195G and 1960 One well which came in In 1960 was on the Lloyd Marchment farm south of Highway 401 and east of Hornby Seynuck hit the gas at 1 feet and estimated the flow would be cubic feet a day Another Hornby area well was on land owned by former Stan Hall One reason for all the optimism about oil and gas riches in North was the fact the ton Limestone or Ontario Arch rock formation begins just north of Acton and extends south west under Lake Erie intoOhlopnd Indiana By the mid million barrclls of oil had been pumped out of this formation in Ohio and prolific wells were in operation In Ontario along the shores of Lake Erie Anthony Gas and Oil began selling natural gas to United Suburban and later Union Gas in early Some of it undoubtedly heated homes in North since in the summer of gas went in to service here According to Bob Lewis Union Gas spokes man they kept buying gas from the local firm until November 1973 was sold to Anthcx Industries of London died In prior to the sale of his com pany In January the contract was cancelled The pressure in the wells was gone and Anthex couldn meet its supply quota of a minimum of cubic feet a day wasn producing any more than 000 cubic feet a day Lewis notes that much gas since the average household uses cubic feet of gas year Anthex went into receivership several years ago When its contract cancelled by Union Gas they may not have been meeting their supply quotas not Just because the well pressure but because they didn t have the cap ital to Invest in new equipment to bring up more gas There might be a lot of gas left in North maybe even some oil too Ron Bryant head of the Ontano Ministry of Natural Resources petroleum resources branch admits But it will sit there until the industry finds it an viable project to drain existing wells and search for more Even though there chance there could be more gas and Canada is suppose to have an en crisis he province has been plugging the long abandoned wells thai were simply left to deteriorate by the previous owners After Anthex went into the pro vince took over ownership of the wells and in vitcd landowners to buy them for a nominal fee One farmer took the offer and uses the gos for heating his own farm buildings The rest and now the province is in the process of having the wells plugged Bryant notes some of the wells arc still in good condition and haven interested If a firm wanted to produce the gas deposits commercially Bryant thinks they d have to first spend a considerable sum stimulating the existing wells and of course do a lot more drilling The present energy situation could make deposits important in the years ahead so province is certainly not against more ex pi oration he said Unfortunately there is no guarantee he says that there Is any commercially recoverable gas the area While traces of oil were found it was mostly natural gas so hopes of finding igher priced oil are even slimmer than covering more gas Two or three oil and gas exploration and ling firms have made enquiries about the leases which are probably null and void now Bryant says but because of receivership us ha a cloud over them These companies car out some studies and then backed away Bryant notes Ultimately the wells will likely be plugged a task costing anywhere from to He noted many of the dozen or so wells out in Esquesing t drained and the province docsn t want to see them capped when there is still gas down there Bryant explained to get the remaining gas out might cost to for a compressor and other equipment but a firm might recover justSlOOOD worth of gas North Halton gas deposits are an expensive gamble I m not saying there isn a lot more gas which could be recovered but you have to as they Anthex looked for more gos didn find any and went broke doing it Bryant served Since then Bryant said industry has looked at the wells and examined the chances of finding more gas and backed away so that in dicates they I think they could get enough to offset the huge costs The first successful commercial oil well was sunk in 1958 in Ontario near and since then oil and gas have been brought into pro ductlon in a number of areas As cheap oil came in from Alberta felda many wells in Ontario were closed down Over the past few years wells in the Sarnia area and along the shores of Lake Erie have been uncapped and ore producing again with hand some financial results But there a difference between the wells down by Lake Erie and the ones in North Bryant points out The difference Is in rock formations and where the oil and gas are found In other areas on Ontario where gas and oil are being pumped profitably and new are being made there are several mentary levels where fossil fuels are found al just one level BOO or 1 feet down Gas is found at a deeper level in other areas Often at different levels But there North formations just aren there You just gel one chance to find tho gas at just one level Bryant explains University of Guelph geologist Ward worth also t think there enough gas left in the Acton area to make it commercially vi able He suspects most of the gas that in the ground has been found already and there I much left In the wells Both the Acton and Hornby area fields are re of a particularly geological structure called an anticline a fold where the two sides slope away from each other Chesworth ex plains In the anticlines around here lime stone containing the mineral dolomite calcium magnesium carbonate is trapped between two types of Impervious rock Oil and gas migrate upwards through the porous limestone and col lectin the apex of the fold where the non porous cap rock prevents them from going any higher Only by drilling a well can they be extracted said So while the higher prices for gas and oil and new technology Is once again making Ontario in a small way a producing province prospects aren good for he wells In the Acton area So far Industry has determined there sufficient reserves to justify the expense of putting back in production Investors lost a lot of money in earlier years and nobody is coming forward to chance more losses on what looks to have been Just a dream Jeli nek wins but no Tory joy Otto Jelinek won Aeton and the ridme but didn feel much like celebrating Monday A few minute after It things began to liven up one thing bars eould open the we was milder and workers were racing from poll In poll to headquarters with the early At Sharon osier Street was turned tu post for had mixed feelings the results they brought in Their m in Doug Black did nut win but he did two polls if only by a few votes and in several more sometimes Hill Perns Supporters rned their to l tit to wdteh nth predict a liber il majority around the Mintime swing to and the Poster reaction wasn Acton I chose to watch the returns at Per ras Milton head quarters No one was around the five posls to see capture seven polls tic he Con in three It was all and doom it the Progressive on Mill Street Results of polls were all in giving incumbent Otto Jelinek i victory in but it by much C campaign for Acton Brian worried He called lh head quarters several times to find out results from the rest of the riding Other Aeton Tories gathered around the portable television set to watch the re sults They could not believe their eyes and Canadians in the east were in a I iber il majority defeating the tl sup Icel only months Most in dicing lis ster tin irh li ii Hi summed ii rill them when Well we did our in is nithinj least A cton vote Jelinek majority reduced Progressive Conservative candidate Otto Jelinek topped the Acton and polls in riding on his way I to Ottawa in day federal election however his majority in this a collected 1 Aeton and votes according to unufficiol results provided by the local Tory campaign office down ballots from his total of last May Rookie Liberal candidate Bill Perras came in second with 1 He improved on 79 candidate rank s total of 1 by 123 votes Third place finisher was New Democratic Party candidate Doug Black with votes more than he drew in this area last May This newspaper obtain a breakdown votes for the other three candidates Robert Ritchie Independent Karen Stltck Libertarian and Charles Marxist I three candidates lumped under the heading of Others attracted votes three less than the same trio picked up last year The turnout was down a little from last May when 4 ballots were cast in Acton and Monday people voted Jelinek won of the polls which Included one split poll and the poll while captured seven polls The Conservative and Liberal candidates lied three other polls Black won two Acton and area polls Perras come second in 14 polls Jelinek five and in three Jelinek ran third in one poll four and Black I- oil owing is an unofficial poll by poll tally Poll Number MlnA Vukovich fund over 1100 100 is rused before the New Ye ir for the family trustee of the fund Barton says trust fund was set up for the f imilv follow a tragic Incident list I in low in which one of J iscpli son was killed and two oilier sons seriously injured f imily ived to Iowa from list It is alleged tint wife Call ihlid seven year old to and also wounded itlhew five ami Jonathan four months al the time of the Dental week in April The week of April 13 to will be dental health week in Hills Monday night council sup ported the Peel Dental Association request to proclaim the week in April Denial Health Week incident attempted murder Mr Barton reported Prosecutor Jim the fund rused more iuld expects Mrs thin SI 100 and at the offenn in request of the family sanity defence She reniims in the Hank of ri in Nova Scotia pending a decision regarding its Mrs has been in custody In the psyclnatrle ward of St 1 rancis Hospital Waterloo Iowa since the incident She recently court pleaded not guilty lo the first degree murder charge and two counts of ft Our Salute To Scouting We praise the Boy Scouts and Girl Guides of this community for working together to expand their ideas sharing their pastimes and fun times and partaking in worthwhile projects SCOUT GUIDE WEEK February OUR Sweetheart of a Sale CONTINUES DIGITAL CLOCK RADIO PM3880 FMAM POLICEyAIR WEATHER PORTABLE RADIO ACDC CR4B PORTABLE CASSETTE TAPE RECORDER WITH BUILT IN CONDENSER MIC Your Choice 29 HILLS FURNITURE and APPLIANCES Queen St Acton