Rethinking the oilsands effect
COMPANIES MUST REALIZE they’ll be ‘judged by their actions,’ says former Syncrude CEO
For years, industry and government have treated oilsands pollution studies like unwanted party guests — ignore them, and they just might go away.
But a report published this month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in the U.S. is already resulting in a shift in thinking among key players — and could prove to be a turning point in the development and management of Alberta’s rich resources.
Conducted by scientists from Environment Canada and Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont., the study revealed that lakes in the oilsands region are becoming increasingly contaminated — and predicted more serious consequences unless development is monitored more carefully.
“The oilsands are a large industrial development and it will have impact on the land and water,” said Travis Davies, a spokesman for the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, who called the study “good, peer-reviewed science.”
“We need to identify the issues that are occurring in the environment and better understand the risk,” he said.
Following on the heels of a 2009 study by University of Alberta scientist David Schindler that had similar findings, the Jan. 7 report cut the legs out from under industry’s oft-repeated argument that pollution is not caused by operations in the oilsands but by bitumen that seeps naturally into the watershed. Although some of the tarry crude does seep into rivers near bitumen deposits, the study found elevated levels of petrochemicals in lakes not fed by rivers, one 90 kilometres downwind from the nearest facility.
“The results of the study confirm what the scientific community across the board has been telling us,” said Peter Kent, the federal environment minister, adopting more neutral language than he has in the past. “When civilization and industrial development occurs, there are consequences.
“This study shows that we are seeing contaminants transported farther than people thought, and that needs to be considered in terms of the environmental impact.”
The longtime head of Syncrude and former chancellor of the University of Alberta, Eric Newell believes industry needs to review the study carefully.
“I am a real big fan of world-class environmental monitoring,” said Newell, who retired as Syncrude’s CEO in 2003 after 14 years. “Facts are friendly and, in this case, come as a result of highly credible research.
“Industry needs to take the data and analyze it and see how it relates to what they are doing. Companies need to realize that it is not a PR battle they are fighting. In the end, they are judged by their actions.
“The issue is how to continue production to meet rapidly growing demand and, at the same time, reduce environmental impacts. And that is where technology comes in.
“Technology got us to where we are today, and it will take us to where we need to be in the future. Nobody should argue against facts. What they need to do is foster innovation.” After years of study, it looks as if science is finally catching up with the oilsands.
Co-written by Environment Canada scientist Derek Muir and John P. Smol, a professor of biology at Queen’s University and the Canada research chair in environmental change, the most recent study on development and ecosystems revealed that production in the oilsands is polluting air and water at greater rates than previously thought.
Analyzing sediment from the bottoms of six small and shallow lakes north of Fort McMurray, researchers found groups of chemicals associated with oil production at levels 2.5 to 23 times greater than existed in 1960.
The research documents an increase in cancer-causing polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons beginning in the late 1960s, around the time commercial production began in the oilsands, and at a time when levels were declining in other northern lakes across Canada. PAHs are carcinogenic at high levels and rank in the top 10 on the U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.
The researchers set out to answer two questions: Have contaminants in lake sediments increased over time? And could those contaminants be directly connected with oilsands development rather than residue from naturally oc- curring bitumen deposits?
In four of the lakes where scientists took core samples, sediments had an average of more than four times the level of hydrocarbons as they had in the 1960s. In the lake closest to an oilsands facility, levels were 23.2 times greater. Even Namur Lake, 90 kilometres to the northwest in Birch Mountains Wildland Provincial Park, had three-and-a-half times the levels of the toxins.
The study notes that, while overall counts of PAHs remain low, some lakes are approaching warning levels and the toxins will likely increase along with production in the region, which holds the world’s largest reservoir of bitumen.
Since 1980, production in Alberta’s oilsands has increased from 100,000 barrels per day to 1.5 million — and is projected to increase to 3.7 million barrels per day by 2025.
“For a long time, industry and government’s recurring mantra has been, ‘It’s all natural,’ but now we have the smoking gun,” Smol said. “I think we can say the PAHs that we are recording are not natural, and we can pinpoint them.
“A storm is developing, and the wind is blowing in the direction of the oilsands.
“We are not saying the lakes are pits of pollution right now, but all you have to do is some back-of-theenvelope calculating to realize there could be significant problems if production increases 150 per cent over the next 15 years,” Smol said. “The scenario we are presenting is not very good. It’s not just that industry is releasing 40-odd PAHs, the footprint is bigger than that.
Awarded a Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee medal in 2012, Smol said he is hopeful industry will heed the warning or that government will implement stronger regulations.
“History is full of examples of situations like this, where suddenly someone is saying, ‘If only we had listened’, ” he said. “We live in a democracy, and we elect our leaders to lead. I think it is time for them to lead.”
One of Canada’s foremost scien
tists, Schindler has been mucking around Alberta’s oilpatch for decades. Revered by peers and reviled by industry as the devil in disguise, his research on the oilsands has been demonized and ridiculed by companies and government alike.
Schindler said he believes it’s time for executives from companies operating in the oilsands to come clean on the environment and announce long-term objectives that will provide more protection.
“At the point where they want to expand and can’t find any stakeholders willing to put up any money, they will really be screwed.
“And I think that day is not far off.”
Schindler said the Queens study is one of at least three major findings expected on the oilsands this year. Others include research that shows fish embryos die when subjected to run-off from contaminated snow, and an independent study that expands on his own 2009 research by looking for a wide spectrum of trace metals in snow downstream from oilsands operations.
The first researcher to tie together the effects of acid rain, climate warming and stratospheric ozone depletion on freshwater ecosystems, Schindler said he has met in the past year with executives from companies who want to take a more proactive position when it comes to monitoring the oilsands. So far, he said, they have been unable to convince their colleagues. Speaking on background, an official with one major oil company operating in northern Alberta said the study shows there are inefficiencies that need to be fixed.
“With us and some of the other players, what I would say is that we need to have a policy debate, and the policy should be as a result of good, scientific research,” the official said. “I think we should constantly look for more research and data and use it to design programs that are more efficient.
“We need to understand the context and the possible causes of the contamination. There is a drive on to improve environmental performance.”
The policy director for the Pembina Institute in Edmonton, Simon Dyer was not surprised by the study’s findings.
“I think it validated what we already knew — that there is clearly a pollution signal associated with the oilsands,” said Dyer, a wildlife biologist who did his thesis at the University of Alberta on energy development’s impact on woodland caribou. “For too long, the rosy projections of the economic potential of the oilsands has been completely detached from the environmental reality.”