With an estimated 1.7 trillion barrels of oil deposited across an area about the size of New York state, the oil sands of northern Alberta have fuelled an incredible boom in the province, become a major contributor to Canada's economy, and have helped this resource-rich nation become the single biggest exporter of oil to its Southern neighbour.
Alberta is home to the world's second-largest proven oil reserves, next only to Saudi Arabia. Today, the oil sands account for about one-third of all the oil produced in Canada. In 2004, production exceeded 1 million barrels per day, and with oil prices hovering around $70 per barrel, the oil sands development is sure to continue to grow. The National Energy Board predicts that by 2015, oil sands development could triple to three million barrels per day.
But extracting oil from the tar sands in Alberta comes at no small cost. Unlike that of Saudi Arabia, for example, most of Alberta's oil is buried deep in the earth in the form of tar sands—a mixture of sand, clay, and the black sticky substance called bitumen. Extracting the bitumen requires clearing out huge tracts of land—usually boreal forest—to dig out giant open-air pits. Separating the oil from the bitumen is no easy task, either.
The energy-intensive process used to produce oil from the sands emits two to three times more greenhouse gases than conventional oil development.
"[Alberta's] oil sands are the most polluting, the dirtiest fossil fuels out there right now," says Ian Bruce, a climate change specialist with the David Suzuki Foundation.
In fact, Alberta is now Canada's largest producer of greenhouse gas emissions, despite its population being only about a quarter of the highly industrial province of Ontario.
Darcie Park, a spokesperson for Suncor Energy Inc., says that while they realize the oil sands development does have environmental impacts, Suncor have made "a lot of progress" in recent years in improving its environmental performance, although she notes there are still some challenges ahead.
She notes that Suncor is currently in the process of developing a 'CO2 Capture Technology' which could "significantly" reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Good news, but any technological advancement is likely to be offset by the tremendous expansion expected in the next decade.
The oil sands development also takes a huge toll on the land. Four tons of earth is displaced to produce just one barrel of oil. According to Lisa Grotkowski, Public Affairs Officer with Alberta Environment, some 150,000 acres of land has been moved by the oil sands development. A report by the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) says that Syncrude Canada Ldt., the world's largest oil sands producer, has alone moved more earth than what was used in the construction of the Great Wall of China, the Suez Canal, the Pyramids of Cheops, and the world's 10 largest dams, all put together.
The government of Alberta requires that, after extracting the bitumen from the earth, the oil companies restore the land through reclamation efforts. The restoration projects aim to bring the former boreal forests back to a point where they at least have the same functions as they had before, although restoring the land to its former state is likely unachievable.
Syncrude boasts what is likely the most successful land reclamation effort. The company spends about $7-million per year on reclamation projects, and has to show for it tracts of green land with trees and even buffalo.
Even so, the government of Alberta has yet to proclaim any land successfully reclaimed. (Syncrude's application for a reclamation certificate is currently under review).
"The reclamation program is working partially, but it'll never bring back the land back to the way it was before," says Stan Laurent, a resident of the Fort MacKay native reserve.
"The effort's there, but they'll never bring back the traditional berries; they'll never bring back the traditional trees that the First Nations people used for medical purposes, for eating, for all sorts of purposes. Those will never come back."
For MacKay is located on the edge of the Athabasca tar sands, about 50 kilometres north of the epicentre of the oil sands development, Fort McMurray. Here, in the middle of dense and pristine boreal forest, and overlooking the Athabasca river, the air bears a toxic stench, and the river is polluted; its fish, residents say, are dangerous to eat.
"Nobody eats fish out of the Athabasca River anymore," says Laurent. "They used to survive off that."
The reserve, which itself sits on oil sands, is surrounded on all sides by mining companies. Many residents find employment in the oil sands, and the prosperity it brings to the reserve is undeniable. Here, the distant hum of heavy machinery and trucks the size of houses carving bitumen out of the mines can be heard 24 hours a day. Every few seconds, loud pops ring out through the land—water cannons, scaring birds away from 'tailing ponds' of black, poisonous water.
Drawing out one barrel of oil from the tar-like bitumen consumes two to five barrels of water, most of which is derived from the Athabasca River.
"The amount of water that currently is being extracted from the river, or is currently licensed to be extracted from the river, places the river at risk when the river is under low flow conditions in the winter time," says Severson-Baker, director of Energy Watch program at the Alberta-based Pembina Institute.
Many oil companies say they're becoming more efficient with their use of water, sometimes recycling it over a dozen times to minimize the impact on the river. The Alberta government has given licence to oil sand companies to extract more water than is used by the municipalities of Calgary and Edmonton combined, but some operations use only a small fraction of the water they're entitled to.
Yet the benefits of recycling water are cancelled out by the breakneck expansion of the developments. Pembina estimates that water consumption will increase by 50 percent in the next six years. That water is eventually returned to the river or collected in tailing ponds. No oil companies have come close to reclaiming these toxic ponds.
Residents living downstream on the Athabasca fear that pollution in the river and surrounding environment is endangering their health. In Fort MacKay, many of the children live with asthma and other respiratory problems, and anecdotal evidence suggest that abnormally high cancer rates are ravaging families. Recently, a leak at a nearby oil plant forced the hospitalization of several children.
"People are dying of cancer all around us. The industry is all around us…The kids are always sick from the water. The tap water that we use is no good; it has to be boiled," says Yvonne Shott, a lifelong Fort MacKay resident.
But nowhere are the health concerns more evident than in Fort Chipewyan, Alberta's oldest settlement. Fort Chip, as it's called, is located on the scenic northern shores of Lake Athabasca, which the Athabasca River drains into.
The village, which is home to little over a thousand people, has been making headlines recently after the provincial and federal government launched an unprecedented joint investigation to understand what appears to be a cluster of cancer and other lethal diseases including leukemia, lymphoma, lupus, and perhaps most disturbingly, an high occurrence of cholangiocarcinoma—usually an extremely rare cancer affecting the bile duct, which leaves victims with only about a month to live.
"Last winter, we had someone pass away every week from cancer," says Charles Fraser, a store owner in Fort Chipewyan.
"I lost one sister….my dad died of cancer, my mom passed away from cancer too."
Dr. John O'Connor, who flies into the town once a week from Fort McMurray, raised the alarm about the community's health problems a few years ago, but residents say the cancer rates have been a problem for decades.
The government investigation into the problem is not expected to be completed for another couple of months. And while there are several possible causes for the village's cancer rates, many residents believe it's something in the water.
Neighbouring communities that do not draw their water from Lake Athabasca also don't share Fort Chip's cancer rates.
"You used to be able to go to the water with a cup and have a nice drink of water anytime," says Fraser. Now, many residents use their own water filtration systems or rely on bottled water.
Like many in the village, Fraser grew up eating fish three times a day. His father was a fisherman, and he was too, until recently.
"I once went to sell a fish to my friend, and he said 'I hope it doesn't give me cancer.' That's when it hit me. What if someone got cancer from it? And I quit fishing on account of that," says Fraser, adding that the pickerel fish in the lake contain as much mercury as a can of sardines, and that sores have appeared on the bodies of many fish.
A study released in 2002 by Alberta Environment says that, although some species of fish do contain mercury concentrations in excess of the Health Canada fish consumption guideline, it found that this does not appear to be related to oil sand stack emissions. However, the study did not examine the effect of trace metals released directly into the water by the oil sand companies.
But although the oil sands are taking their toll on the environment, and even on the health of northern Albertans, they do provide jobs from Calgary to Fort Chipewyan. Even here, residents acknowledge that the oil sand development can't—and shouldn't—be stopped.
"I think Albertans would definitely want the oil sands to be developed," says Pembina's Severson-Baker. "But they want it to develop in an environmentally protective way and if that means slowing down a bit, I think they will be willing to accept that compromise."