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1OIL SANDSThe Case for CautionSaskatchewan Environmental Society

What are oil sands?A dense, sticky mixture of sand, water and tarry material found underground

Bitumen

Source: Scientific American, October 2009

Bitumen FilmWater LayerSand ParticleSource: Canadian Centre for Energy InformationA Grain of Oil Sand

Canada has the second largest reserve of crude oil in the world.Source: Athabasca Oil Sands Corporation

Biophysical Features of the Region

www.chrs.ca/Rivers/Clearwater (Website of Canadian Heritage River Systems)

Clearwater River Valley

www.chrs.ca/Rivers/Clearwater (Website of Canadian Heritage River Systems)

8Saskatchewans portion of the Clearwater River and its adjacent lands are included in a 200,000 hectare wilderness park immediately to the south of the current oil sands disposition area.The Clearwater River Valley and the nearby oil sands area are a source of valuable archaeological sites

www.chrs.ca/Rivers/Clearwater (Website of Canadian Heritage River Systems)

9The Clearwater River Valley and the nearby oil sands area have many valuable archaeological sites.On sections of the Clearwater River are ancient rock paintings that attest to this region being inhabited for thousands of years.

Mining Process

Source: Shell Canada

Digging and transportation of oil sand ore

Oil sands is a source of contamination for many birds, as well as a primary cause of fragmentation of their breeding habitat.

Source: The Waters That Bind Us (Pembina Institute)

Suncors Operation At Fort McMurray

Photo Credit: David Dodge, Pembina Institute

15Political Context: The big stakeholders in Canadas oil sands industry are privately owned national and international oil companies with a huge income and asset base.They include companies such as Suncor, Syncrude, Imperial Oil and Shell. Regulating such companies requires political will, good federal-provincial co-operation and excellent enforcement.The Governments of Alberta and Canada permit waste disposal in tailings ponds that have become like lakes.1.8 billion liters of tailings is produced each day.

Photo Credit: Pembina InstituteReference: The Tar Sands Leaking Legacy by Matt Price (2008) Refer to Page 8.

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Environmental Defense and Pembina Institute estimate that 11 million liters of contaminated water per day leak from tailings ponds into the larger environment.

Photo Credit: Oil Sands Myths: Clearing The Air (Pembina Institute, 2009)Reference: The Tar Sands Leaking Legacy by Matt Price (2008) Refer to page 2.

17Clearly, the Government of Canada cannot be counted on to be a firm regulator.Unfortunately, the Government of Saskatchewan shows no sign of readying itself to be an effective regulator either.Both the previous NDP government and the current Saskatchewan Party government granted exploration privilegeson lease land without an environmental impact assessment and prior to preparing a regional land use plan.Suncors Tar Island Dyke separates an oil sands tailings pond from the Athabasca River. We do not expect tailings ponds to be part of oil sands in Saskatchewan, but this photo speaks to how the Government of Canada has regulated the industry.

Tailing pondAthabasca River

Source: Google MapsTailing PondsAthabasca river Tar Sands from Space

In-Situ process Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage

Source: The Pembina Institute

Heavy use of water where does it come from

In-Situ production

Source: Alberta Oil Magazine

The Central Facility of the Opti-Nexen In Situ SAGD Project

Source: Pembina Institute and David Dodge

23In situ extraction requires significant above ground facilities. This is the OPTI-Nexen site in Long Lake, Alberta. It includes a 99 hectare central facility, 234 exploration wells, 288 production wells and power lines to each well pad.

Impacts on the Environment

25Saskatchewans portion of the Clearwater River and its adjacent lands are included in a 200,000 hectare wilderness park immediately to the south of the current oil sands disposition area.

The Central Facility of the Opti-Nexen In Situ SAGD Project

Source: Pembina Institute and David Dodge

26In situ extraction requires significant above ground facilities. This is the OPTI-Nexen site in Long Lake, Alberta. It includes a 99 hectare central facility, 234 exploration wells, 288 production wells and power lines to each well pad.

SAGD Oil Sands And Forest Fragmentation: 80% Of Lands Are Within 250 Metres Of Industrial Infrastructure

Photo Credit: Pembina Institute/David Dodge

28Even some distance away from the central facility, fragmentation of the boreal forest is substantial. The OPTI-Nexen land parcel is 10,600 hectares, but 80% of the land will be less than 250 metres away from industrial infrastructure related to oil sands. Inevitably, this has negative impacts on local wildlife populations. Fragmented physical habitat results in the natural range of species being diminished and split up. Northeast Alberta Species In DeclineLynxCaribouMartenFisherWolverineBoreal ChickadeeRose-Breasted GrosbeakYellow-bellied SapsuckerRed-Breasted NuthatchBrown CreeperVarious WarblersSource: Richard Schneider and Simon Dyer. Death by a Thousand Cuts (2006). Refer to page 13.

Photo Credit: Google Images

29As the number of oil sands plants in northeast Alberta grow, there is a marked reduction in many species that rely on the boreal forest for habitat.

Background Note The bird in the slide is the yellow-bellied sapsucker.

Source: Pembina Institute and Wayne LynchWoodland boreal caribou in the oil sands areas of northern Alberta are in decline

30Woodland boreal caribou are very vulnerable to oil sands development and are at risk of being wiped out at a local level in some areas of northern Albertaas the oil sands industry grows.Pipeline Gathering SystemFor Bitumen Extraction

Source: Pembina Institute & Petro Canada

31In situ plants also require very extensive above-ground pipeline collection systems. The pipeline collection system involves both a steam supply line and a line for produced bitumen.Lynx numbers drop significantly in regions of the boreal forest subjected to industrial development.

Photo Credit: Pembina Institute and David DodgeSpecies Decline:

32An aerial acrobat and a member of the goatsucker family, Chordeiles minor (common night hawk) is classified as threatened by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada. It inhabits the proposed oil sands area in northwest Saskatchewan.

Source: Nature Canada Web Site; Photo by Dick Canni

33If oil sands proceeds in northwest Saskatchewan the habitat of threatened species such as the common nighthawk will be eroded.

Background Note:

The common night hawk is not a hawk. It is a member of the goatsucker family.The Lesser Scaup breeds in northwest Saskatchewan and will be vulnerable to oil sands. The Scaup has faced a 70% decline in population in North America over the past 50 years.

Photo Credit: Google Images

Road construction, construction of water crossings and pipeline construction can cause soil erosion and increase the sediments entering surface water.

Scope of Water ImpactsSteam injection can lower aquifer levels in the vicinity of the source well, in turn creating a reduction in the water levels of nearby lakes, ponds and wetlands.Aquifer water quality can be damaged by well blow outs.Thermal plumes created during bitumen extraction can mobilize arsenic.Bitumen under pressure may leak into permeable aquifers.Sludge and solid wastes disposed of in landfills could leak over the long term.

Air Pollution

Airborne pollutants from oil sands plants include volatile organic compounds, particulate matter, nitrous oxide, sulphur dioxide and carbon dioxide.

37Oil sands operations are a significant source of air pollution. The largest source of airborne pollution is the upgrader. Examples of airborne contaminants include nitrous oxides and volatile organic compounds. Many volatile organic compounds are toxic and they all combine with nitrous oxides in the presence of sunlight to form ground level ozone. One of the volatile organic compounds produced by the oil sands is benzene, a carcinogen and a toxic substance to which there is no safe level of exposure.

Oil sands operations also emit large quantities of particulate matter which can be carried deep into the lungs and contribute to health problems such as bronchitis and asthma.

From an environmental point of view, two of the most important pollutants released by the oil sands are acid producing sulphur dioxide and nitrous oxides. Albertas oil sands generate more than 150,000 tonnes per year of nitrous oxide and sulphur dioxide emissions. These are emitted in much higher quantities than the conventional oil industry. In the next set of slides we shall turn to a more detailed examination of their impacts.

References: (1) Simon Dyer, Jeremy Moorhouse, Katie Laufenberg and Rob Powell. Undermining The Environment: The Oil Sands Report Card (Canada: Pembina Institute, 2008), pages 27 and 30. (2) Christopher Hatch and Matt Price. Canadas Toxic Tar Sands: The Most Destructive Project On Earth (Toronto: Environmental Defence, 2008), p. 11. These are references for the total annual release of nitrous oxide and sulphur dioxide emissions.

Opti-Nexen Upgrader, Alberta

Photo Credit: Pembina Institute: David Dodge

38Central facilities often include an upgrader, which converts bitumen into synthetic crude oil with the use of pressure and steam. The crude oil is then sent to a refinery for further processing. The upgrader is an energy intensive operation and can thus have significant pollution impacts.Greenhouse gas emissions from the oil sands are at least triple those from conventional oil. For many in situ plants oil sands plants, greenhouse gas emissions can be even higher.

Photo Credit: David Dodge, Pembina Institute

39Multiple oil sands projects could make Saskatchewans greenhouse gas emissions even worse. This is because if a barrel of oil is produced from in situ oil sands, the greenhouse gas emissions are at least three times higher than if that same barrel of oil is produced using conventional methods.

Reference: B. Metz, O.R. Davidson, P.R. Bosch, R. Dave, L.A. Meyer (editors) Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Climate Change 2007: Mitigation. Contribution of Working Group 3 to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, p. 268. The United Nations calculates that net emissions from oil sands are 15-34kg of carbon dioxide per GJ compared with 5-10 kg of carbon dioxide per GJ for conventional oil. These numbers assume the production of transport fuel.Comparison of GHG emissions resulting from production of oil

Acid precipitation can take place hundreds of miles away from the emission source

Slide Credit: www.jamesglass.org

41Once in the atmosphere, sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides become mixed and can travel long distances. In the case of Alberta and Saskatchewan, the prevailing westerly winds carry 65-70% of the emissions from the Fort McMurray and Cold Lake area into Saskatchewan. During their transport, sulphur dioxide and nitrous oxide are involved in chemical reactions with hydrogen chloride, oxygen and water vapour. These reactions produce dilute solutions of nitric acid and sulphuric acid, which ultimately fall as rain or snow on Saskatchewan soils and water bodies. It can take between 2 and 14 days before acid deposition on land or water occurs. As a result, acid deposition can take place as much as 1,000 kilometres away from the original pollution source.

Impact of acid rain on lakesBacteria, algae, insects, plants, clams, snails, crayfish, frogs negatively affectedFish can starve because of food depletionFish and their eggs poisonedDifferent species affected at different levels of acidity

EmissionAciddepositionSO2

H2O2

PANsNOX

O3

OthersDirect damageto leavesand barkReducedphotosynthesisand growthIncreasedSusceptibilityto drought,extreme cold,insects, mosses,and diseaseorganismsSoil acidificationLeaching ofsoilnutrientsAcidRelease oftoxicmetal ionsRootdamageReducednutrientandwateruptakeTree deathImpact of Acidic Deposition on Ecosystems

Summary of Environmental ImpactsFrom Oil SandsForest fragmentation and loss of boreal forest habitat / many species in declineLoss of lands that deserve protection or have high alternative economic valuesRisk of aquifer contamination and decline in surface water qualitySulphur and nitrous oxide emissions result in acid rain and damage to northern lakes.Unusually high greenhouse gas emissions compared to conventional oil production

The question:Is it worth it?

Would it make more sense to concentrate on developing cleaner sources of energy?