Mining and refining bitumen from oil sands is the
fastest growing source of greenhouse gas pollution
in Canada, with plants and upgraders producing
the equivalent of 40 million tons of CO2 emissions
every year (Natural Resources Canada 2008). In addition, upgrading bitumen into synthetic crude oil is
a significant source of acidifying emissions, such as
nitrogen and sulfur oxides, which affect downwind
areas like Saskatchewan, where soils and lakes are
especially sensitive to acidification (Environment
Canada 2009). These impacts will increasingly
affect the U.S. as well, because much of the new oil
sands production will be exported as raw bitumen
from Canada and upgraded at U.S. refineries.
Scars Across the Land
The oil sands industry has expanded rapidly in the
past decade as the global price of oil has increased.
Today some 32,000 square miles of land underlain
with oil sands deposits have been leased for development, including one contiguous surface mineable
zone of 1,900 square miles—more than four times
the area of Los Angeles.
Lands are auctioned and leased to companies with no
environmental impact assessments or consultation
with stakeholders, including aboriginal communities
(Government of Alberta 2009). This has prompted
three of the affected First Nations (Native Canadians) in the oil sands areas to launch legal challenges,
arguing that the developments are a breach of treaties signed with the Crown. Jack Woodward, legal
counsel for the Beaver Lake Cree Nation, explains
that the treaties “have constitutional protection and
guarantee [Native Canadians] the rights to hunt and
fish in their traditional lands forever.”
After a site has been mined, oil sands companies are
nominally required to reclaim the land, defined as
“stabilizing, contouring, maintaining, conditioning, and reconstructing the surface” (Government of
Alberta 2008). This process does not restore what
was previously on the landscape, however. Rather it
is a process that measures the “productivity” of the
landscape from a perspective of how it is beneficial
to human uses. The track record for reclamation is
bleak: Despite four decades of mining activity, less
than 0.2 percent of the mined area has been certified by the Government of Alberta as reclaimed, and
reclamation of toxic liquid tailings has never been
demonstrated. In addition, Alberta does not require
compensation for the loss of wetland habitats that
are permanently destroyed by oil sands mining.
Mounting Impacts on Wildlife
Although the oil sands industry is relatively new,
research shows growing cumulative impacts of industrial development on Alberta’s fish and wildlife.
A paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, for example, showed that
oil sands development was related to elevated levels
of polycyclic aromatic compounds in the Athabasca
River and its tributaries, with concentrations that
are likely toxic to fish embryos (Kelly et al. 2009).
The authors suggest that major changes are needed
in monitoring and managing the environmental
impacts of oil sands development.
Carved into the heart of
alberta, the province’s
designated oil sands area
totals 54,170 square
miles. Below it lie billions
of barrels of recoverable
bitumen, the tar-like
crude in oil sands. oil
sands development in
this area overlaps with
intact forests and the
habitat of non-migratory
woodland caribou, which
are in decline. other
species sensitive to
industrial activity—such
as migratory birds,
wolverine, lynx, and
marten—are also in
decline, a drop that will
intensify as the oil sands
industry expands.
Woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou) are
also suffering. All caribou herds in Alberta are now
considered non-self-sustaining, largely as a result
of cumulative development within their ranges (
Environment Canada 2008a). Herds in the East Side
Athabasca River range, where in situ development is
underway, have declined by more than 65 percent in
