Friends of the Lubicon
PO Box 444 Stn D,
Etobicoke ON M9A 4X4
Tel: (416) 763-7500
Email: fol (at) tao (dot) ca
www.lubicon.ca
March 4, 2008
The briefing notes described in the attached article were ignored, at least in the sense that they did not cause the federal government to start assessing the cumulative environmental impact of tar sands exploitation instead of just continuing to rely on provincial assessment of the impact of a given proposed project -- which is of course no environmental impact assessment at all.
If a proposed oil company project supposedly meets provincial emission regulations, for example -- as claimed by the company in it's application and then, incredibly, as monitored and reported to easily cowed provincial officials by the company -- that project meets provincial regulatory requirements even if there are a dozen similar projects in the immediate vicinity all producing similar emissions, and even if the total amount of emissions being produced by these dozen projects together greatly exceeds any defensible emission limits. Nobody is even pretending to monitor or assess the cumulative environmental impact of all of this.
Water in southern Alberta is not in short supply because of a growing agricultural sector of the Alberta economy. Water is in short supply in southern Alberta because of drought that may very well be related to global warming; to growing gas and oil company activity in southern Alberta that is undoubtedly contributing to global warming; and to a burgeoning urban population in Alberta that is indisputably related directly to exploitation of the tar sands. Farmers in Alberta are in fact having a tough time surviving.
Provincial government officials say that the amount of water "allocated" annually to tarsands companies, located primarily in the northeastern corner of Alberta, now stands at 523 million cubic metres -- enough to supply nearly the entire Toronto population of 2.7 million people. That does not include the huge amount of water being used by the gas and oil industry elsewhere in the province causing, among other things, water shortages in southern Alberta. This huge amount of water being used to produce tar sands oil is forever contaminated and cannot then be used for anything else.
Water use by tar sands companies in northeastern Alberta is likely even greater than the 523 cubic meters a year reported by provincial officials. It takes 3-5 barrels of water to produce one barrel of tar sands oil. There are currently 1.126 million barrels of tar sands oil being produced per day, up from 600,000 barrels a day in 2000. The number of barrels of tar sands oil produced per day is expected to more than double by 2020 and to nearly triple by 2030. Water use will increase exponentially.
It is this explosive growth in exploitation of tar sands oil that TransCanada's proposed pipeline through unceded Lubicon land over Lubicon objections is intended to make possible -- until it can be supplanted with highly problematic nuclear energy that will also irreversibly contaminate huge amounts of finite water resources. This nuclear energy is to be provided by a nuclear power company in which TransCanada has a significant financial interest.
People should demand that the government of Canada meet its responsibility to ensure that the cumulative environmental impact of exploitation of tar sands oil does not have the effect of rendering the planet uninhabitable for life as we know it.
Mike De Souza
Canwest News Service
Monday, March 03, 2008
Senior officials at Environment Canada were warned two years ago about potential economic and environmental impacts from water shortages as well as legal threats resulting from an explosion of development in the oilsands sector, Canwest News Service has learned.
Briefing notes for senior management warned that many projects could run into roadblocks from lawsuits if regulators didn't conduct extensive assessments that looked at cumulative impacts of all the projects on the table, instead of addressing proposals one at a time.
"Environment Canada is actively involved in environmental assessments of various oilsands development projects, and there are key concerns related to cumulative environment impacts on water, air, wildlife and habitat," read the document prepared for Michael Horgan, after he was appointed as deputy minister of the department in May 2006. "The lack of a proper assessment of the cumulative effects associated with these projects could result in legal challenges of federal and provincial approvals."
A spokesman for an environmental research group said the warnings accurately predicted that environmental and community groups would be taking the government to court for failing to consider impacts of all the new projects.
"It's clear that (federal government officials) are dodging the legal responsibility they have and the accountability they have to Canadians to be ensuring that the environmental impacts of oilsands developments are responsibly managed," said Dan Woynillowicz, a senior policy analyst at the Pembina Institute.
The briefing notes, prepared by Environment Canada experts and released to the National Post following an access to information request, also warned about potential economic impacts of rapid development of oilsands activities that consume millions of cubic metres of water.
"There is intense competition for water as a result of the oil extraction industry, agriculture and urban growth," said the document.
"In the southeastern part of the province, water has been in short supply and allocation issues need to be addressed to limit any environmental or economic impacts to the region. EC is currently co-leading a policy research project with both the Alberta Ministries of Economic Development and Environment to value water as a natural capital and ensure its sustainable and efficient use."
Government officials say that the annual water allocation for oilsands companies now stands at 523 million cubic metres, almost the equivalent of the entire consumption for the city of Toronto.
© The Edmonton Journal 2008
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