What is the Environmental impact of Oil sands mining in Athabasca?
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Oil sands are bituminous sand which is a mixture of clay, sand, water and bitumen. The bitumen is separated from the mixture and heavy crude oil is extracted from it. The most well known reserves of oil sands found in the Alberta district of Canada in the Athabasca river basin is one of the biggest and the first reserve of oil sands discovered. As the process of mining developed gradually the associated environmental impact gained importance with it.
Oil sands are bituminous sand which is a mixture of clay, sand, water and bitumen. The bitumen is separated from the mixture and heavy crude oil is extracted from it. The most well known reserves of oil sands found in the Alberta district of Canada in the Athabasca river basin is one of the biggest and the first reserve of oil sands discovered. As the process of mining developed gradually the associated environmental impact gained importance with it.
Oil sands are bituminous sand which is a mixture of clay, sand, water and bitumen. The bitumen is separated from the mixture and heavy crude oil is extracted from it. The most well known reserves of oil sands found in the Alberta district of Canada in the Athabasca river basin is one of the biggest and the first reserve of oil sands discovered. As the process of mining developed gradually the associated environmental impact gained importance with it. The nearby region of the Athabasca River and the boreal forest cover got polluted slowly as more and more oil sands were collected from the river basin. Under this topic we would see the environmental impact of the Athabasca oil sands mining.
What is the Carbon intensity in the region?
The whole process of oil sands mining was proved to be carbon intensive through environmental impact studies conducted. 62 to 164 kg of Carbon dioxide equivalent per barrel is released when synthetic crude oil production and up gradation is required. This figure is much more than the Carbon dioxide released as a result of conventional mining which ranges between 99 to 176kg of Carbon dioxide equivalent per barrel. Even the Canadian government reported that greenhouse gas emissions are 5 times more than that produced from conventional mining. The total emissions from Canada have rose to a percentage of 25.3% since the year 1990. There were regulations introduced in the year 2007 but it had too many loopholes and faults. It had predicted however that Canada’s green house gas emission would treble by 2020. Apart from the production process the heavy equipment movement also causes the emission of small particulate matter and dust. The regional air quality monitoring program was questioned because no significant effort on their part to reduce emissions in this region was found.
What are the environmental impacts on the landscape in the Athabasca river basin?
The oil sands reserves were found under the boreal forests of that region. This section of boreal forests in Canada represents 25% of the total intact forest cover that is found in world. This forest is the home of a large number of endangered animals and birds. It was estimated that the project development would need the clearance of the area of boreal forests up to 3000 km square. This figure is just the estimate of land area that would be mined in order to access the oil sands deposits. The remaining area of 1,37,000 km square would be transformed into a cobweb like structure because of the seismic lines, well pads, roads and other lines after few more years. These kinds of activity can push the boreal forests almost on the verge of tipping causing heavy losses in biodiversity. This boreal forest region has turned into one of the hot spot regions in terms of the environmental degradation it suffered. Out of the huge area that suffered because of oil sands mining, only a very little portion was reclaimed after 40 years of mining. And none of these regions have received the reclamation certificate from the government of Alberta. Suncor energy’s operation that lasted really long reported that 858 hectares of land has been reclaimed since 1967. Syncrude Canada spoke about impacting 18,653 hectares of boreal forest land and 4055 hectares of land has been reclaimed out of this. Even If reclamation of land is taken seriously from now onwards oil sands mining industry would take more than a century to achieve full reclamation.
What are Tailings?
One of the byproducts of the oil sands mining is liquid tailings. The constituents of liquid tailings include uncovered hydrocarbons, naphthenic acids and trace metals. This by product is very toxic and harmful for the marine life present in the Athabasca river basin and the mammals living in and around the region. If adherence to the water quality guidelines are maintained then these water tailings are not supposed to be released into the Athabasca River. The operators should store them by making dykes. Based on the calculations made in the year 2009 it was found that 720 liters of toxic tailings are present on the landscape of the Athabasca tar sands area. Right now they affect an area of 130 km square but by the year 2040 these tailings would occupy an area of 310 km square. The tailing ponds also facilitate the migration of pollutants via the ground water system. This also has the chance of getting leaked into the surrounding soil. A plan to reclaim liquid tailings right at the closure of the mine involves the idea of getting them deposited in end pit lakes. The tailings would be collected in mine pits that are old and after that it will be capped with water. The problem with this method is that the end pit lakes will get so toxic that aquatic life will be harmed as a result of this and even the tailing layers may get mixed.
What are the direct environmental impacts of oil sands mining on the water bodies?
The Athabasca River is as long as 1500 km. The river travels the length of the boreal forests to quite an extent. The water from the river is used for the separation of bitumen from the mined sands. The withdrawal of water for oil sands surface mining can prove to be really harmful for the aquatic life of the river. 2 to 4.5 barrels of fresh water is withdrawn from the river for every barrel of oil that is being produced. 348 million cubic meters of water from the river is allowed to be withdrawn which can almost supply a city of 2 million people. But the difference is that the tar sands mining effluents are not well treated like city effluent waters.The environmental impact of the oil sands mining industry in Alberta has been negative. The once fresh and ethereal looking boreal forest region now stands quite devastated. The atmosphere in that region is so heavily polluted that it is giving rise to various health problems among the people living in and around the region. If the oil sands reserves in the region of Athabasca river basin is allowed to be exploited completely then the land, water and air of the region would reach a level of such destruction that it would never ever be possible to restore them back to their previous conditions.
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