Extracting tar sands and water use

Water is another major problem. Tar sands plants typically use two to four barrels of water to extract a barrel of oil. Currently, the water consumption is enough to sustain a city of two million people every year. And after it's been through the process, the water is toxic with contaminants, so it cannot be released into the environment. Some of it is reused, but vast amounts of it are pumped into enormous settlement ponds to be retained as toxic waste.

These "ponds" are actually the largest bodies of water in the region--big enough to be seen from space--and some of the world's largest man-made ponds overall, with miles of surface area. It may take 200 years for the smallest particles to settle down to the bottom of this toxic brew, which also contains very high levels of heavy metals and other health-threatening elements.

According to a recent joint study by the University of Toronto and the University of Alberta, the projected expansion of the tar sands projects will kill the Athabasca River, the only abundant source of water in the area. "Projected bitumen extraction in the oil sands will require too much water to sustain the river and Athabasca Delta, especially with the effects of predicted climate warning," the study said. If that amount of water were used, they warned, it would threaten the water supply of two northern territories, 300,000 aboriginal people and Canada's largest watershed, the Mackenzie River Basin.

http://canada.theoildrum.com/node/2931

These people will spend absolutely nothing on externalities. The Alberta and federal governments are enabling them, exercising no oversight, enforcing no constraints.

This is your world:



This is your world on tar sands:


Any questions?

Photo credits:
Copyright © 2005 The Pembina Institute
Photo: David Dodge, The Pembina Institute
Courtesy of http://www.OilSandsWatch.org

Hey, I bet if I started a pet-food company that kidnapped homeless people off the streets and ground them up into "Nick's All-Organic Puppy Chow", I could make a profit. Who wants to be my corporate vice president? And don't give me any crap about that being "immoral" or "criminal"; you have to think of the profits.

... enabled not only by the corrupt politicians but the morons who think
that this is a good way to get their next petrol fix.
:grr:

"well, junkies find veins in their toes."