[R-G] Tar sands leaking 11 million litres of tailings water a day: report

[Anthony Fenton]

December 10, 2008
Tar sands leaking 11 million litres of tailings water a day: report
By Travis Lupick
http://www.straight.com/article-175373/tar-sands-leaking-11-millionlitres-tailings-day-report

The first comprehensive report on water pollution from Alberta’s tar  
sands estimates that 11 million litres of contaminated water is  
leaking into the environment every day.

The report shines new light on how tar-sands pollution is regulated  
and describes current practices as a “monitoring mess”.

Matt Price, the report’s author, charges that monitoring and reporting  
on tailing-pond leakage is handled behind closed doors and is a  
classic case of the fox guarding the hen house.

“You’ve got an industry-funded and industry-dominated body monitoring  
industry activities,” Price told the Straight in a telephone interview.

Prepared by Environmental Defence, a Toronto-based group, the report  
calculates that over four billion litres of contaminated water leaked  
from tailing ponds in 2007 alone.

“Should proposed projects go ahead on schedule, by 2012, this annual  
leakage rate would increase five-fold to 72 million litres a day”, the  
report says.

Titled “11 Million Litres a Day: The Tar Sands’ Leaking Legacy”, the  
report explains that oil companies operating in the tar sands extract  
bitumen—a form of petroleum—from a mixture of sand, silt, and clay.  
Hot water is used to separate the bitumen, and then unwanted materials  
are dumped into tailing ponds. Toxic substances are present in the  
waste streams.

According to the report, tailing water produced by the tar sands is  
“widely acknowledged” to be harmful to human health.

Price explained that tar-sands tailing ponds leak because their walls  
are simply made out of materials extracted from the earth, without any  
industrial liners.

According to the report, tailing-pond leakage is monitored at two  
levels. Companies are required to self-monitor leakage into  
groundwater by drilling wells and supplying their findings to the  
government of Alberta. As well, the federal and provincial governments  
have delegated much of the responsibility for monitoring surface-water  
quality to a multi-stakeholder body called the Regional Aquatic  
Management Program.

But according to the report, RAMP is “funded and dominated by the tar  
sands companies” and many independent stakeholders which once  
participated in the organization have since distanced themselves.

Environmental Defence’s report charges the federal government with  
failing to enforce the Fisheries Act, which prohibits the deposition  
of harmful substances in any place where it could enter water systems  
frequented by fish.

Environment Canada responded to an interview request via e-mail and  
stated that specifics could not be commented on until a review of the  
report was complete. Alberta Environment did not respond to an  
interview request.

Price stressed his deep concern about the potential long-term effects  
of tailing-pond leakage. “It is kind-of what we’ve termed a ‘slow- 
motion oil spill’,” he said.

According to the report, Environmental Defence’s study used industry  
information from project applications to calculate conservative  
estimates for overall tar sands leakage rates. Calculations were  
conducted by the Pembina Institute.

On October 28, the Vancouver-based Ethical Funds Company called for  
the suspension of new oil sands development pending the completion of  
conservation and land use planning.The group’s report warned that a  
“heady mix of litigious, liability, regulatory, and reputational  
risks” are in store for any company involved in Alberta oil sands  
development.