The Alberta Oil Sands without question add a huge financial stimulus to the Alberta economy. Environmentalists refer to oil sands as dirty oil. Even Obama talked about not purchasing oil from the oil sands because of the effect on the environment. Since Martin Ignasiak is in my grill trying to censor the Internet and is an environmental lawyer (I stress mental) crushing public consultation in the oil sands development, perhaps we can find a compromise.
One of the problems from the oil sands appears to be the very toxic water that is left over. Kind of like heavy water from a nuclear reactor. The Canadian government requires this water to be contained so is doesn't end up in the rivers and stream. That only makes sense. Seepage is one problem. The other is migrating birds. Not to mention fish with tumours, lesions and cysts.
A friend just came back from working on the Alberta Oil Sands and he mentioned about how they took some bad press about several ducks dying from coming in contact with one of these toxic lakes of polluted water. They refer to it as dead duck lake. Who knows, maybe I'll be the next dead duck: http://www.desmogblog.com/dead-ducks-a-disaster-for-alberta-oil-sands
First lets address the seepage problem. The National Geographic ran an article about the Alberta Oil sands and posted a picture of Suncor's oil sand refinery on the banks of the Athabasca River. See that tiny dike separating the contained pool of very toxic water from the river. That is insane. Seepage is a given. This is an accident waiting for a time to happen. The contained pools of toxic water need to be far way from river, streams, lakes or wells. Period. Suncor is by the way one of Martin Ignasiak's clients.
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OK now let's look at the dead ducks. A few dead birds in one thing but the lake they came in contact with was huge. This problem has not been fixed and is a continued threat to all migratory birds. A few air cannons to scare away the birds isn't even a band aid solution. Here's a solution:
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You spend all that time and energy refining the oil, why not distill the water? Heat it up, let the water evaporate, then take the solidified toxic residue and throw it back where you got it in the oil sands that have already been excavated.
1 comment:
Finian, a few things:
1) There were a lot more ducks that died than originally thought: http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE52U6Q920090331
2) You're right, having a tailings pond next to the Athabasca River is insane. But I worry that using the amount of energy required to "distill" the water would be just as insane - it would be so phenomenally expensive and energy intensive that a) the companies will never agree to it; b) the provincial government will never force companies to agree to it; and c) it would contribute substantially to climate change in a negative way. There already exists millions of dollars of research on "dry tailings", but so far the government is too close to the oil industry to make a law that actually protects the water shed (and that would cut into profits). Perhaps a more innovative solution would be to put more R&D and energy into greener energy production such as solar and wind?
3) Perhaps you would enjoy this post: http://theorganicintellectual.blogspot.com/2009/08/photo-essay-oilsands-tourists.html
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