Alberta Tar Sands

Jacqueline Aruffo, Elizabeth Sparicio, Alexa Spitz, Jacob Stewart, Angel Yi

November 22, 2019

Introduction

According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, Tar Sands are “a mixture of mostly sand, clay, water, and a thick molasses-like substance called bitumen. Bitumen is made of hydrocarbons--the same molecules in liquid oil--and is used to produce gasoline and other petroleum products.” These sands are the most expensive and dirtiest form of oil--producing 15% more carbon dioxide emissions than a standard gallon of conventional oil. Alberta runs the largest industrial operations for the extraction of oil sand. National Geographic claims that, “If Alberta, with its population of four million people, were a country, it would be the fifth largest oil-producing nation. While it produces conventional oil, most comes from the Alberta oil sands, the world's third largest proven oil reserve at 170 billion barrels.”

On the right is an aerial photo of a "tailings pond", or where toxic water is pumped out at a Tar Sands oil extraction site.

How Oil Sands are Extracted

There are two forms of extraction based on the depth of the sands. 20% of oil sands are less than 75 meters from the surface and can be open-pit mined. Because the bitumen is so thick and heavy, a large amount of water is used to dilute the sands during the production process. The land is cleared on the surface (causing a great deal of land disturbances such as deforestation) and large trucks scoop the oil into carriers that take the sands to an onsite location where the large clumps of earth are crushed down. They then use water to separate the bitumen from the rest of the products. The water that is not recyclable is contained in tailing ponds which are loaded with toxins. The second method, used when the sands are below 75 meters, are extracted using large wells. The wells utilize steam which warms the bitumen to the point where extractors are able to pump it to the surface. The former method, regardless of the fact only 20% of sands are less than 75 meters below surface, is the most detrimental to the environment.

Embedded below is a video that displays this process.

Oil Sands 101

Deforestation

Canada is home to one of the Earth’s greatest ecological treasures--the boreal forests. The forests consist of beautiful mountain ranges, plains, peatlands, and a plethora of waterways. Unfortunately, the mining of tar sands in Canada is threatening the forest and tree cover loss is at an all time high. The World Resources Institute reported that nearly two million acres of forest have been cleared since the mining began. To put that into perspective, two million acres is nearly six times the size of New York City. The consequences of deforestation in this region are extremely detrimental in the fight against climate change as boreal forests capture twice as much carbon dioxide than tropical forests. These forests are also home to an abundance of wildlife such as blackbears as well as various First Nations communities. The WRI also reports that “Between 2000 and 2012, forest loss in the tar sands region—which is caused by bitumen (oil) extraction as well as logging and other industrial development—amounted to 5.5 percent of total land area, surpassing loss in Russia (2.2 percent), the United States (2.9 percent), Brazil (4.3 percent) and Canada as a whole (3.1 percent). And in the surface mineable area of the tar sands region – a 475,000 hectare area within the tar sands region where developers clear all vegetation from the land in order to extract bitumen.”

A map of Alberta's boreal forest and tar sands extraction sites layered with deforestation. As you can see, Alberta as well as Canada as a whole has suffered great deforestation due to tar sands extractions efforts.

The division between boreal forest and bitumen-laced ground at the Fort Hills Suncor oil sands site near Fort McKay, Alberta is displayed in this picture.

Water

As mentioned before, the process of bitumen-mining calls for copious amounts of water for production. An often overlooked problem, the mining companies are forced to pull this water from the boreal forest--leading to the drying of waterways and the disturbance of the ecosystem. Furthermore, the water used to filter the bitumen is collected in tailing ponds near the extraction site. These ponds contain a mixture of heavy metals and petrochemical byproducts such as lead, mercury, arsenic, and benzene. A recent Environmental Defense study showed that “the ponds are leaking 11 million liters per day in aggregate, and that a single pond can leak up to 6.5 million liters per day. Tailings ponds are ostensibly designed to allow minerals to “settle out” in order to prevent seepage of polluted water outside of containment zones, but evidence shows that the dirty water is interacting with the Athabasca watershed.

In addition to wet toxins , the ponds emit dry pollutants : carcinogenic hydrocarbons evaporate into the ambient air and pass into the water supply, and greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane enter the atmosphere, contributing to climate change.” With very little regulation, these tailing ponds continue to grow in size and the deadly chemicals inside are beginning to rapidly absorb into the groundwater. The impact this has on First Nations communities is catastrophic.

Impact on First Nations

The Alberta First Nations have led opposition against tar sands extraction.

A study conducted by two Alberta First Nations communities in collaboration with the University of Manitoba found that the amount of carcinogens being absorbed into the skin of wildlife in the area is extraordinarily high and has linked it directly to Tar Sands Production. Wildlife including moose, ducks, and beavers--all of which are common animals hunted and consumed by First Nations communities--have shown increased levels of cadmium, mercury, selenium, and various polycyclic aromatic. When consumed, these elements present extremely dangerous health risks which have been known to damage DNA, increase the risk of cancer, and impact human development. Biliary tract cancers, blood and lymphatic cancers, lung cancers, and soft tissue cancers have all been reported at abnormally high rates among several First Nations communities but the one that suffers the most predominantly is that of the Fort Chipewyan community which is located directly downstream of the largest Tar Sand development. The consumption of toxic wildlife as well as the air pollutants in the region are also responsible for the increased rate of skin abnormalities among workers and those near the mine.

This bigger map shows the different indigenous lands in Alberta.

The highlighted blue areas within the indigenous lands of Alberta show all the active, approved and "other" projects in the oil sands from 1985 to 2015 collected by Alberta Environment and Parks.

Once the projects are removed you can see the white areas on the satellite image that shows the tar sand extraction points.

Conclusion

The consequences of the climate crisis are heightened through obscene levels of resource extraction. Practices such as oil extraction in the tar sands are contributing to deforestation, contamination, and a whole host of negative externalities that are crippling the planet at an ever increasing rate. Unfortunately, resource extraction, as seen in the tar sands of Alberta, is often justified in the name of progress. Consumer culture has produced an insatiable appetite for “more”, “new”, and “better”. The tar sands yield economical energy that bolsters the economy at the expense of the environment.

In Amitav Ghosh’s book, The Great Derangement, the author emphasizes the danger of short term economic prosperity at the expense of irreversible, environmental damage. He claims, “the climate crisis is also a crisis of culture” (Ghosh 9). Ghosh presents his readers with the grim reality of economic prosperity as the equivalent of environmental destruction. His response to the justification of economic benefits is that, “Every family in the world cannot have two cars, a washing machine, and a refrigerator—not because of technical or economic limitations but because humanity would asphyxiate in the process” (Ghosh 92).

The paradox of improvement is that a better life for most is leading to the end of life for all. Powering progress with tar sand oil comes at more than just a monetary cost. As previously mentioned, tailing ponds are leaking 11 million liters per day of petrochemical byproducts and heavy metals, skin abnormality manifestations are increasing on workers near tar sand mines, and nearly 2 million acres and counting of the Boreal Forest in Canada are being destroyed. Taking all of these costs into consideration, oil extraction in the tar sands continues to thrive because the powerful elite has decided that the economic benefits of its 170 barrel reserve for today outweighs the environmental costs for tomorrow.

Sources

Beans, L. (2016, June 27). Higher Cancer Rates and Tainted Local Foods Linked to Tar Sands Operations. Retrieved from https://www.ecowatch.com/higher-cancer-rates-and-tainted-local-foods-linked-to-tar-sands-operat-1881930355.html

Blair, J. (2017, December 21). Tar Sands Tailings Ponds: Out of Canada's Control. Retrieved from https://www.nrdc.org/experts/james-blair/tar-sands-tailings-ponds-out-canadas-control.

N.a. What Are Tar Sands? (2016, February 23). Retrieved from https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/what-are-tar-sands.

Oil Sands Extraction and Processing. (2016, February 19). Retrieved from https://www.nrcan.gc.ca/energy/energy-sources-distribution/crude-oil/oil-sands-extraction-and-processing/18094.

Petersen, R., Sizer, N., & Lee, P. (2018, September 26). Tar Sands Threaten World's Largest Boreal Forest. Retrieved from https://www.wri.org/blog/2014/07/tar-sands-threaten-world-s-largest-boreal-forest.

Willms, I. (2019, May 3). This is the world's most destructive oil operation-and it's growing. Retrieved from https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2019/04/alberta-canadas-tar-sands-is-growing-but-indigenous-people-fight-back/.