The report, Deep Trouble: The Reality of In Situ Tar Sands Operations, examines the misleading claims made by the oil industry with respect to in situ tar sands operations. The report cites industry data, government documents (including briefing notes obtained under the Access to Information Act) and peer-reviewed scientific literature.
“The evidence from government and industry’s own reports shows that in situ extraction doesn’t solve the basic problems of the tar sands,” said Melina Laboucan-Massimo, Greenpeace climate and energy campaign and report co-author. “Melting the bitumen out of the ground rather than digging it out actually creates more greenhouse gas emissions and fragments more wildlife habitat than open-pit mining, while creating toxic waste we don’t know how to treat or safely store. To solve this problem, we need to go beyond oil and invest in renewable energy.”
The report outlines a number of concerns: climate-warming greenhouse gas emissions, other toxic air pollutants, increased water usage and the resulting contamination, landscape and habitat disturbance, and First Nations treaty rights.
Deep Trouble also includes accounts from people near in situ operations who have witnessed firsthand the impacts on their communities. It’s the first time a report on tar sands impacts has given equal weight to the concerns of First Nations and other communities living in the shadow of these destructive projects.
For instance, Elder Rene Cardinal from the Beaver Lake Cree First Nation is quoted in the report: “Today there are no elk or moose left. . . These people that are digging up our forest, the oil and gas exploration crews, have frightened off all the animals. They have had to find other place to move to. Very rarely can you track animals here.”
Also quoted in the report is Donna Dahm, a high school teacher in the Peace River region, where in situ extraction is expanding rapidly: “Why are we repeatedly and consistently experiencing exhaustion, joint pain, respiratory difficulties and headaches if there is no risk? It is clear that the well-being of our community is for sale, or more accurately, to be given away to any industry that wishes to set up shop to make a buck.”
The report follows a day after Statoil, Norway’s mostly state-owned oil company and a proponent of in situ extraction, was in court facing 19 counts of contravening the province of Alberta’s Water Act.
The report is available for download here.
Deep Trouble the Reality of in Situ Tar Sands Operations