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Alberta oil sands, water in conflict New study reports high levels of carcinogens, toxic substances in fish, water and sediment downstream from projects Gary Park For Petroleum News
In the words of Mark Twain: Whisky is for drinking. Water is for fighting over.
Some might consider posting that quip in large letters over 90,000 acres of what was once forest and wetlands and is now a moonscape that keeps spreading across the oil sands of northeastern Alberta.
In recent years, the consumption and alleged contamination of the region’s water supply by oil sands operations have become as big a concern for environmentalists and residents as the sector’s greenhouse gas emissions, hunger for natural gas and degradation of the landscape.
The water issue was raised to a new level Nov. 6 when a 75-page report was released by the Nunee Health Authority of the Fort Chipewyan area of northeastern Alberta.
It identified high levels of carcinogens and toxic substances in fish, water and sediment downstream from oil sands projects and suggested oil sands development might be responsible for rare types of cancer in the heavily aboriginal community of 1,200, poor water quality and other health afflictions.
The authority’s health director Donna Cyprian said residents who have long believed their community experiences higher rates of cancer than normal “now know there is something wrong.”
Oil-related PAHs found Although the report, authored by ecologist Kevin Timoney, with Treeline Environmental Research, did not specifically link the oil sands to the elevated levels of carcinogens and toxic substances, the study said oil-related compounds called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons or PAHs were found in the Athabasca River, which flows downstream from the oil sands to Lake Athabasca. (From the lake, the Slave and Mackenzie rivers flow another 1,200 miles to the Arctic Ocean.)
Timoney said that although PAHs occur naturally in the area and are found in oil sands deposits along the Athabasca River bank, they were above historical levels in the sediment, indicating human activity was contributing to the increase.
The Mikisew Cree First Nation, representing aboriginals in and around Fort Chipewyan, called for an immediate moratorium on oil sands expansion.
A Mikisew spokesman said the Canadian and Alberta governments “are continuing to issue approvals for projects despite all the uncertainty about the true environmental effects” of the developments.
Alberta Health Minister Dave Hancock said the province had only seen a draft of the study, but its initial view is that the research was based on old data.
He said the government had already found that study claims of high arsenic levels and cancers in the area were overstated.
But Hancock said the final report will be examined to determine if Timoney has raised any new issues.
Arsenic study last year A study commissioned last year by oil sands giant Suncor Energy estimated arsenic found at the company’s Voyageur site could result in 450 additional cases of cancer for every 100,000 residents over people’s lifetimes.
The Alberta government conducted its own follow-up study and concluded that oil sands development was not contributing to arsenic levels or elevating cancer risks.
The Mikisew nation has urged the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board over the past year to block oil sands projects, but has been overruled by the regulator which has approved three new mining operations as being in the “public interest.”
Now it is armed with new information that is in sharp contrast to the Alberta government’s findings.
Timoney, using data gathered from 1970 to the present from the Athabasca River, Peace River and Peace-Athabasca Delta near Fort Chipewyan, found PAH levels rose between 2001 and 2005 in the Delta sediment, with current levels rated as unsafe to aquatic life.
He said the government and industry seem reluctant to “admit there is any cause for concern.
“I can’t (answer for them) as to why they would always downplay the risk: Certainly the numbers indicate to any objective scientist that there is a cause for concern,” he said.
Timoney urged the residents to press for another independent study of the water and wildlife.
Health Canada attacks physician However, the challenge for those trying to sway governments was evident earlier this year when John O’Connor, a family physician at Fort Chipewyan from 1993 to 2007, came under attack from Health Canada when he reported a disproportionately high incidence of liver, blood and bile-duct cancers in patients from the community that he linked to arsenic and PAHs.
Health Canada filed a complaint against O’Connor with the regulatory body for Alberta doctors, accusing him of causing undue alarm.
Physicians and other health care professionals who worked with O’Connor said he was being targeted because his comments potentially threatened billions of dollars of oil sands investment.
Cyprian said she was “really upset because … he’s standing up for us,” while Michel Sauve, the medical head of an intensive care unit in Fort McMurray, said doctors who identified potential public health problems should be protected rather than punished.
“Obviously we need some whistleblower protection, some laws that will banish these kinds of repressive censorship,” Sauve said.
However, there are signs that aboriginal communities are not prepared to let one aspect of the water issue fade.
A year ago 200 First Nations representatives in Alberta, British Columbia and the Northwest Territories formed a united front to protect the region’s water supply and combat falling water levels in the Athabasca, which is estimated to have dropped 30 percent in the past two decades.
Deh Cho Grand Chief Herb Norwegian said he hoped the meeting would serve as a catalyst “so people can actually start focusing on this really serious issue.”
The leaders hope to hold further conferences and invite industry and governments to participate in regular round-table sessions.
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