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Petro Problems in Cowboy Country
by author Barbara Yaffe

When it comes to mega-profits from mega-oil, the province of Alberta was not careful enough about what it wished for. What it has been granted, along with the riches, is a nightmarish mess of pollution that it has not begun to address.

Certainly, the oil sands are making big wads of cash for Wild Rose Country. The province’s 12.7 percent average annual growth in recent years has been almost on a par with that of China. Alberta’s GDP rose by 43 percent between 2002 and 2005, driven by the oil and gas boom. And the wealth is spreading across the land. The loonie has become a robust petro-currency, and folks in other provinces are benefitting from all the jobs being created.

By 2010 the three tar sands develop-ments in northern Alberta are expected to account for two-thirds of all the black stuff produced in Canada.

But while getting rich is fun, there’s a steep price to be paid, one that largely has been overlooked in the headlong stampede to feed the American oil beast and tote up the take.

A Porridge of Pollution

The fact is, the tar sands, covering territory equal to the size of Florida, accounts for some of the heaviest and worst-quality oil in the world. The onerous mining and refining process that turns the clay-trapped bitumen into synthetic crude is massively energy intensive, horribly polluting, and potentially dangerous to health. These are matters that politicians and corporate interests do not care to discuss.

A report jointly prepared by the World Wildlife Fund and the Pembina Institute has ranked the oil sands mines on 20 different environmental indicators in five categories: environmental management, land impacts, air pollution, water use, and greenhouse gas management. It concluded: “For the most part oil sands mines get a failing grade.”

And in 2006, amid all the jubilation about prosperity, population growth, and resource largesse, the Sierra Club of Canada labelled Alberta “the industrial pollution capital of Canada.”

Dream Turned Nightmare

Development of the oil deposits went from dream to reality just a few years ago, made commercially feasible by the rising price of oil and technological advancement. Only lately has the downside emerged as a policy issue. Even now it’s not a top-of-mind issue for Canadians; tar sands turf is geographically remote, populated mainly by native people.

The process itself of turning tar sands into a marketable product produces enormous carbon dioxide emissions, projected to double by 2011. And ever more emissions are churned out later on when the petroleum is burned as fuel.

Then there’s the fact that the land must be stripped bare. Two tons of tar sands are removed to create a single barrel of oil. This of course requires clear-cutting huge swathes of boreal forest, which contain 35 percent of Canada’s wetlands. Boreal forests account for 25 percent of all ancient forests remaining on the planet.

In addition, a network of roads, well pads, seismic lines, and pipelines further disturbs the terrain. This spells misery for the vast array of plants and wildlife that the forest ecosystem supports: grizzlies, wolverines, woodland caribou, and birds. Already, locals have noticed that caribou herds are in decline.

Enormous amounts of natural gas are used to coax the oil from the sands. And water­– twice the amount of water used by Calgarians in the run of a year. The resulting wastewater, with a stew of contaminants, is being stored in huge lagoon-like tailing ponds that can be seen from outer space. The oil companies sound air guns to ward off birds who might dare to alight near the ponds.

Toxic Health Care

Communities downstream from the oil projects say they are experiencing the impact of the water pollution, noticing abnormalities in the fish they’re harvesting–lumps, humpbacks, bulging eyes, crooked tails. Worse, they’re sending out an alarm about human health.

Barbara Yaffe is a national political columnist at The Vancouver Sun. Her column is read across Canada in CanWest newspapers. Born in Montreal, Yaffe has lived in Vancouver for 19 years.

Source: alive #313, November 2008