Oilsands monitoring to change course
EDMONTON — Ottawa and Alberta are announcing a new strategy Friday to monitor the environmental impacts of the oilsands.
The announcement comes 18 months after a University of Alberta study exposed flaws in the province’s oilsands monitoring, and seven months after the Alberta Environmental Monitoring Panel called for changes to the monitoring regime.
University of Alberta water scientist David Schindler and colleagues published a study in August 2010 saying the oilsands industry increases the amount of pollutants in the Athabasca River, contrary to claims made by industry and government. His and other studies prompted the creation of both federal and provincial panels aimed at improving environmental monitoring in the oilsands.
The Alberta Environmental Monitoring Panel scientific panel released a 102-page report last June calling for a science-driven, independent environmental monitoring commission for the oilsands region and province as a whole. The panel report also called for an interim board to be established within “a matter of months.”
The panel report said the province should work with Ottawa to ensure there is no duplication of effort. Other recommendations included the creation of a publicly accessible system and increasing input from First Nations.
Oilsands monitoring has been a controversial issue in Alberta for years, with government officials denying claims of health and environmental impacts and rejecting scientific reports that slammed the existing industry-funded monitoring system.
For more than a decade, the monitoring has been undertaken by the much-maligned Regional Aquatics Monitoring Program.
NDP provincial legislator Rachel Notley said that program was flawed and partly why the oilsands have taken such a beating internationally.
“We obviously have jeopardized the economic future of the province by being so hapless and negligent when it comes to how we deal with the environment,” she said. “We don’t have a good record and so people aren’t going to take us with good faith.”