The Parkland Institute

Environment

Alberta’s quicksand

Tar sands development is causing increased rates of cancer, decreased water levels, loss of carbon sinks, and a plethora of other health and environmental problems

The tar sands are a dangerous and dirty source of energy, and the fallout from their development is spreading around the world.

For years, tar sands have been grabbing headlines as a highly profitable business opportunity for major oil companies, but the money flowing to shareholders and executives hasn’t materialized out of nowhere — profits are high because of a huge drain on Alberta’s natural and human resources.

Supposedly shouldering the burden of growth, or paying the “price of prosperity,” the people of Alberta have suffered from a damaged environment, and staggering social costs as a result of the tar sands. As tar sands development expands, people around the world will also suffer from its contributions to climate change.

Because of the extraction process, and because of the scale of the projects, the exploitation of the tar sands has become an environmental nightmare affecting every part of the ecosystem.

First of all, tar sands processing emits excessive amounts of greenhouse gases which cause global warming and climate change. Secondly, the tar sands rapidly deplete clean energy sources like natural gas. Third, huge amounts of water are used to extract the oil. Fourth, air and water in the area is polluted by tar sands activities – making people sick.

Finally, thousands of hectares of boreal forest have already been destroyed, and a total of 4.3 million hectares may be cut down if projects proceed as planned.

The oil that is being sought from the tar sands is literally stuck in tar and it is very difficult to get it out. Huge industrial machines are needed to dig the “mineable” tar sands out of the earth, and these burn a lot of fuel. As two tonnes of tar sands must be moved in order to create a single barrel of oil, this means that 35 kg of carbon dioxide equivalent is emitted, making tar sands oil is the most energy-intensive type of oil available.

If the tar sands are located deeper than 100 metres from the earth’s surface, they are extracted by a process called steam- assisted gravity drainage (SAGD), which creates even more emissions than mining: 55 kg of CO2 per single barrel of oil. In SAGD operations, steam is injected into the tar sands to make it flow, and then it is pumped to the surface.

Most people understand the many dangers of global warming and climate change: natural disasters like hurricanes and floods are already increasing, and changes in lake and river levels mean that food supplies are threatened. As the global climate crisis grows, the spread of diseases will increase, agricultural production will decline, and extreme weather incidents like floods and tornadoes will become common. In order to minimize climate change, we need to dramatically reduce the amount of fossil fuels we emit, and ensure that carbon sinks are protected. Unfortunately, by developing the Alberta tar sands, oil companies are doing precisely the opposite.

Tar sands development is already the single largest contributor to the increase in climate change in Canada, as it accounts for 40 million tonnes of CO2 emissions per year, and means that thousands of hectares of valuable carbon sinks in the Boreal forest are removed. These numbers are increasing: by 2011 it is expected that the tar sands will emit 80 million tonnes of CO2 emissions.
In addition to burning fossil fuels to transport the tar sands, heating the water for the steam burns more non-renewable resources. For every barrel of tar sands oil produced using the SAGD method, 1,000 cubic feet of natural gas is burned. On a daily basis tar sands projects use enough natural gas to heat 3 million Canadian homes.

On a yearly basis, tar sands projects are licensed to use twice as much water as the City of Calgary. Between two and five barrels of water are used to produce each barrel of oil. Water is used to “hydrotransport” mined tar sands, to create the steam for SAGD and upgrading processes, and for industrial needs like cleaning, pump operation and cooling systems. Ninety per cent of this water is so contaminated after use that it cannot be allowed back into the river system; as a result, communities living downstream from tar sands projects have noticed considerable decreases to water levels in Lake Athabasca and the Athabasca River.

There are serious health concerns associated with pollution and contamination from the tar sands. Tar sands operations emit nitrogen oxide, sulphur oxide, particulate matter and volatile organic compounds into the air, chemicals which have been linked to a range of respiratory diseases, and exposure to volatile organic compounds can cause cancer and brain damage. One of the largest tar sands companies produces 250,000 tonnes of toxic waste per day. Contaminated water is contained in tailings ponds at tar sands facilities, but since the incidence of cancer and diseases like lupus has been rising in downstream communities, and people have been coming across deformed fish and wildlife, there is a fear that toxic chemicals and heavy metals are being released into the Athabasca River. Mercury, napthenic acids, and petroleum byproducts like alkyl- substituted polyaromatic hydrocarbon are the most dangerous contaminants, and all are known to have serious effects on the environment and human health.

For many Albertans, the loss of the wilderness in the boreal forest is one of the saddest parts of tar sands extraction. Referred to as “Death By A Thousand Cuts,” the destruction of the Boreal means that caribou, songbirds, and a range of other species will lose their habitats, and that Canada will lose its “lungs.” The amount of Boreal forest that could eventually be clearcut to make way for tar sands operations is a land area the size of the state of Florida.

The potential for catastrophe with continued tar sands development is obvious, and much of the damage that has already been done is irreversible. It seems clear that the best solution for the environment, and the health of the people living within it, is to stop all tar sands development, and to focus on safe, clean sources of energy and the other sources of economic prosperity that Alberta has to enjoy.

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