Oilsands threaten water supply, But improved pulp mill technology helping some rivers, report says

Oilsands development is threatening the future of water quality throughout northern Alberta and northern Saskatchewan, warns anew federal-provincial report yet to be made public.

The report explains that for each unit of oil produced from oilsands, one unit of water is lost from the hydrological cycle as it fills the deep cracks in the earth from which the oil was recovered.

“With oilsands production levels rising to levels of two million barrels a day by the year 2015, that’s an awful lot of fresh water that’s going to be lost from the environment,” said one scientist associated with the report. He asked that his name not be used until the study is officially made public.

“Right now, all of those oilsands operations are using mostly fresh groundwater to make the steam that is required to recover oil from the bitumen,” the scientist said. “Someone is going to have to tell them to start using brackish (salty water from deeper in the ground) water, and to rely more on recycling. Otherwise, we’re going to have some serious water shortages in that part of the world.”

The Saskatchewan government, in particular, is concerned that increasing emissions of sulphur dioxide from the oilsands will acidify and kill many of the province’s northern lakes.

The report on lakes and rivers in the Mackenzie Basin, 1.8 million square kilometres that covers one-sixth of the country, was done by the governments of Canada, B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan, Yukon and Northwest Territories.

Designed to inform residents and decision-makers about the aquatic health of the northern waterways, the report wasn’t all bad news.

The good news is that with improvements in pulp mill technology over the past decade, the number of fish consumption advisories relating to dioxin and furans in the Athabasca and Smoky rivers has decreased in recent years, the report notes.

The study found there have been significant reductions in dioxin and furan levels in the rivers of northern Alberta that flow into the Northwest Territories.

Dioxins and furans are chemical by products of combustion and many industrial processes that can cause cancer and other health problems.

They are detectable in trace amounts in air, water and soil in virtually every part of the world.

Once emitted, they travel long distances and last for a long time.

In the process, they accumulate in fatty tissue of fish and animals, and increase in concentration as they move higher in the food chain, including breast milk. More than 90 per cent of the intake of dioxins and furans by humans is through food consumption.

However fish in some parts of the Athabasca River are struggling to survive. Recent increases in phosphorous levels and increases in dissolved oxygen is threatening to starve fish populations in some parts of the river.

Mercury in the flesh of some fish also continues to be a problem. The source in this case doesn’t appear to be from pulp mills or from oil and gas operations. Instead, the type of mercury that is the biggest cause for concern is being transported from other industrial hotspots in the world, including those that use coal for energy.

Climate change is also cited as a threat to the future.

With temperatures warming dramatically over the past quarter century, there have been changes in ice thickness and the timing of freeze up and break up throughout the Yukon, Northwest Territories, and the northern regions of the western provinces. Water levels have also dropped significantly. In some cases, lakes in northern Alberta have disappeared altogether.

Ray Ladouceur, a Metis trapper and commercial fisherman who lives near the mouth of the Athabasca River in northern Alberta, says low water levels are making it difficult to get to Fort McMurray by boat.

“Last year, I hit two sand bars going up and five going back,” he says. “There was a time not so long ago when the water was deep enough to carry me all the way without trouble. If they keep sucking water out from that river to get the oil, there’s not going to be any river left to travel on.”

Ladouceur’s lifestyle, as well as that of hundreds of other Metis, Cree and Chipewyan trappers and fishermen in the area, were dramatically affected by the huge Bennett Dam that was constructed on the Peace River between 1968 and 1971.

the Mackenzie Basin report notes that the size of the area covered by water in the delta has decreased by 38per cent since the dam was completed.

“Newly exposed mudflats have become meadows and productive sedge meadows are being overgrown by willows and poplars,” the report states.

“During this period, the muskrat population declined substantially since water level is a key factor influencing the suitability of muskrat habitat.”

the report notes that prolonged drought was likely a contributing factor to dropping water levels.

The report is unique in that it relied on two different assessments of the area; one by government scientists and research institutes, the other by aboriginal people. The differences of opinion were significant. Of the 11 “unfavourable” assessments contained in the report, 10 were based on traditional ecological knowledge.

The report was supposed to be released this week. Sources, however, say the federal government now intends to release it after the federal election.