Athabasca Tar Sands

By Caitlin Abercrombie

What are they?

The Athabasca tar sands are large deposits of crude oil in northeastern Alberta, mainly centered around Fort McMurray

This deposit is among the largest in the world and supplies thousands of Canadians with good paying jobs

History

The Athabasca oil sands are named after the Athabasca River which cuts through the heart of the deposit

Originally the oil was used by the aboriginal peoples to waterproof their canoes

The Athabasca oil sands first came to the attention of European fur traders in 1719, and were brought to the Hudson’s Bay Company

Environmental impacts

Major environmental impacts include land loss, contamination of water, and the release of greenhouse gasses

Destruction of land

Alberta's oil sands are developed through open-pit mining for approximately 20 percent of the deposit, and in situ extraction technologies for the remainder 80 per cent of the deposit. Open pit mining destroys the Boreal forest of Canada and muskeg that is home to millions of animals.

The Alberta government requires companies to restore the land to "equivalent land capability". In some particular circumstances the government considers agricultural land to be equivalent to forest land, oil sands companies have reclaimed mined land to use as pasture for endangered buffalo instead of restoring it to the original boreal forest and muskeg.

Water

One cubic meter of oil, mined from the tar sands, needs two to 4.5 cubic meters of water, but this is a major problem because the ideal amount of water to produce oil from below the surface would take twice the annual water needs of the City of Calgary

Because of leeching and contaminated run-off, lakes and

streams are being contaminated at an alarming rate. In April 2008, 500 birds died when they landed in a toxic tailing pond at Syncrude's facility.

Green house gasses The processing of bitumen into synthetic crude requires energy,

and currently this energy is generated by burning natural gas, which releases carbon dioxide. For every barrel of synthetic oil produced in Alberta, more than 80 kg of greenhouse gases are released into the atmosphere and between 2,000 and 4,000 barrels of waste water are dumped into tailing ponds that have replaced about 130 km² of forest.

With regards to the Kyoto Protocol, Canada agreed to reduce, by 2012, its greenhouse gas emissions by 6% with respect to 1990. In 2002, Canada's total greenhouse gas emissions had increased by 24% since 1990. Oil Sands production contributed 3.4% of Canada's greenhouse gas emissions in 2003.

Benefits

The list of cons long exceeds the benefits but to be realistic, they must be stated as well

The oil sands provide thousands

of jobs to Canadians. Having such a valuable resource

allows our economy to prosper provide fuel and energy to companies

and homes

How to control the issue A major Canadian initiative called the Integrated CO2 Network

(ICO2N) has proposed a system for the large scale capture, transport and storage of carbon dioxide (CO2). ICO2N members represent a group of industry participants providing a framework for carbon capture and storage development in Canada, initially using it to enhance oil recovery. Nuclear power has also been proposed as a means of generating the required energy without releasing green house gases.

Having restrictions on the land available to be developed and laws that require old sites to be replanted to species that once covered that area

Everything should be cleaned before it is sent back out into the environment such as waste and gasses