Polluted tar sands ponds leaking, report indicates
MARTIN MITTELSTAEDT / ENVIRONMENT REPORTER
December 9, 2008
The tailings ponds storing waste water left over from the processing of Alberta tar sands oil are leaking an estimated 11 million litres of contaminated water every day, according to a new report.
The figure, one of the first publicly available on the scale of the seepage from tailing ponds that dot the landscape in Northern Alberta, is being released today in a report by Environmental Defence, a Toronto-based conservation advocacy group.
The leakage amount would fill Toronto's Rogers Centre stadium 2½ times every year and is based on information provided in environmental impact statements that companies submit to the Alberta government.
Although the province maintains that measures are in place to prevent the seepage from entering shallow groundwater and rivers, the report concludes that there is a "significant loss of contaminated water into the environment."
"Virtually everyone close to the tar sands industry knows that all tar sands tailings ponds leak, even the new ones, and that while steps are taken to recapture the leakage, a significant portion of contaminated water still escapes into the environment," the report says.
An Alberta Environment official said the report exaggerates both the scale of the leakage and the threat it poses.
The official, Preston McEachern, a scientist in the department's oil sands research group, says companies have been able to contain the seepage by digging trenches and using wells to intercept groundwater flows.
Some of the seepage also flows into aquifers, or deep underground water stores beneath the oil sands.
This underground water has already been naturally contaminated with hydrocarbons from the tar sands and any additions from tailings ponds would not be significant.
"You would not be able to distinguish this seepage from natural contamination," Mr. McEachern said.
But the report - because of its large estimate of seepage - is likely to focus additional attention on the controversial tailings ponds, which were in the spotlight earlier this year when 500 migratory ducks died after landing in one. The plight of the oil-coated ducks caused a public relations nightmare for the industry and the Alberta government.
The possibility that the ponds are leaking large amounts of water laced with cancer-causing polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon and trace metals, such as copper, zinc and iron, may be a longer term headache for both the industry and the province.
Report author Matt Price, program manager for Environmental Defence, said the big threat posed by the seepage is that it will contaminate groundwater and then flow into rivers, such as the Athabasca. Although Alberta prohibits the direct discharge of untreated processing water from oil sands plants into the Athabasca, groundwater could provide an indirect avenue for pollutants.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20081209.TAILINGS09/TPS...
