Download Down to the Last Drop.
Water use by the oilsands has been one of the top environmental issues in Alberta for more than five years. Alberta Environment's recently released plan for managing water withdrawals from the Athabasca River does not protect the river from long-term ecological impacts due to oilsands development. This is the conclusion of a paper released today by The Pembina Institute, Down to the last drop? The Athabasca River and Oilsands. The paper will be submitted to Alberta Environment during its consultation period ending March 20, 2006.
"Like the government's controversial Mineable Oilsands Strategy released last fall, this plan clearly places oilsands extraction ahead of protection of the environment," says co-author Dan Woynillowicz. "Alberta Environment's plan relies on voluntary actions by industry, targets rather than limits, and ultimately would allow ecological impacts to the Athabasca River that could be avoided."
The use of water by oilsands development already accounts for 65 per cent of withdrawals from the Athabasca River. Oilsands surface-mining operations use water to extract the tar-like bitumen and turn it into synthetic crude oil, requiring between two and 4.5 cubic metres of water to produce just one cubic metre of oil. Already oilsands operations have been licensed to withdraw about 349 million cubic metres of water per year, more than twice the volume required from the Bow River for the city of Calgary's domestic needs.
The problem arises when industry is withdrawing water during the winter when river flows are naturally lower. "This reduces fish habitat and affects fish populations," says Chris Severson-Baker, a co-author of the report. "This has implications for the ecological health of one of Alberta's major rivers, and for the livelihoods of commercial and subsistence fisheries." But this problem "can be fully mitigated. There are economic solutions to this problem."
The oilsands industry has a number of options available to mitigate or reduce its water requirements. These include improving the efficiency of its water use, increasing its rate of water recycling and storing larger volumes of water on-site. In addition, the industry could store water in offstream reservoirs upstream of its operations.
"We're asking Alberta Environment to rethink its plan," says Woynillowicz.
"If ecological impacts to the Athabasca River are going to be minimized, we need a precautionary plan based on firm water withdrawal limits that trigger mandatory requirements for industry to better manage and mitigate its water use."
The Pembina Institute paper concludes that the government of Alberta must amend and implement its plan immediately, since it will take several years for mitigation options, such as offstream storage, to be implemented. Further, it recommends that no new water withdrawals commence until an adequate monitoring system is in place to monitor flows and impacts to the aquatic ecosystem.
The Pembina Institute's full recommendations are available in the report. The government of Alberta is soliciting feedback on its plan until March 20, 2006.
Copies of the Pembina Institute's paper are available at www.pembina.org/oil-sands and at the Institute's website at www.pembina.org .
- 30 -
For more information contact:
Dan Woynillowicz (primary contact on Thursday)
Senior Policy Analyst
403.269.3344 Ext. 107
Chris Severson-Baker (primary contact on Friday)
Director, Energy Watch
403.269.3344 Ext. 101