• About
    • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Climate News Network Archive
  • Contact
The climate news that makes a difference.
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
  FEATURED
‘Remarkable Rebuke’: 130 U.S, EU Legislators Ask UN to Ditch Fossil CEO as COP 28 Chair May 23, 2023
Ontario Overrules Cities to Push Gas Plant Expansions May 23, 2023
Climate Concerns Drive Job Choices for 40% of Workers Under 40 May 23, 2023
PEROVSKITES: Qcells Plans First Production Line for ‘Miracle’ Solar Cell May 23, 2023
Tokyo Residents Rally to Protect Trees, Stop Skyscrapers in Iconic Urban Park May 21, 2023
Next
Prev

Guilbeault Considering Alternatives to Releasing Toxic Tailings into Athabasca River

August 18, 2022
Reading time: 3 minutes
Full Story: The Canadian Press @CdnPressNews
Primary Author: Bob Weber @row1960

kris krüg/flickr

kris krüg/flickr

34
SHARES
 

Releasing treated tar sands/oil sands tailings into the environment isn’t the only solution being considered to clean up the massive toxic ponds in northern Alberta, federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault says.

Guilbeault said Wednesday that even though his government is developing regulations on how the tailings could be drained into the Athabasca River, other solutions are under review, The Canadian Press reports.

  • The climate news you need. Subscribe now to our engaging new weekly digest.
  • You’ll receive exclusive, never-before-seen-content, distilled and delivered to your inbox every weekend.
  • The Weekender: Succinct, solutions-focused, and designed with the discerning reader in mind.
Subscribe

“We’ve never said this is the only solution we’re contemplating,” he said. “We haven’t ruled out the possibility of finding technical solutions to tailings ponds issues.”

Guilbeault’s comments came as investigators from UNESCO arrived in Alberta to consider threats to Wood Buffalo National Park, Canada’s largest. The investigators are to assess whether federal and provincial efforts to stop the park’s environmental slide are enough to prevent the UN agency from placing the park on its list of World Heritage Sites In Danger—a move the agency has already called “likely.”

One of those threats is the tailings ponds, adjacent to the Athabasca River that flows into the park and the vast freshwater delta it protects.

First Nations and environmental groups worry that the Alberta and federal governments have already decided that treating and releasing the water into that river is the way to go. Not so, Guilbeault said.

“We are being told by some that the only solution is to decontaminate the water and discharge it into the river. We’re certainly not taking that for cash,” he said.

“This is one of the options, but not the only option.”

The government is developing regulations in case releasing treating water is found to be the best answer. Regulations take time to develop, and Guilbeault said something has to be ready by 2025 when the current ponds will run out of capacity.

Any releases would have to be of drinking-water quality, he added. They would also have to be approved in Ottawa.

“That can’t happen unless the federal government authorizes it.”

He said other solutions, such as decontaminating the water and recycling all of it back into operations, are being looked at. Other proposed solutions involve injecting the water underground.

“Something must be done,” Guilbeault said. “This has gone unaddressed long enough.”

Guilbeault said evidence is mounting that the tailings are beginning to contaminate nearby ground and surface water.

Whatever solution is found will have to work on a massive scale, notes CP’s Bob Weber. The ponds currently hold about 1.4 trillion litres of contaminated water and continue to grow, impeding efforts to reclaim the mines.

Guilbeault said Environment Canada is consulting with industry and First Nations.

“The solution will not be decided by industry,” he said.

In a series of tweets, Alberta Environment Minister Whitney Issik said the province has the situation in hand.

“Albertans and Canadians need to know that the Lower Athabasca Oil Sands area is one of the most monitored and studied regions on the planet,” she wrote.

Documents leaked earlier this year to The Canadian Press detailing results of a survey done on provincial environmental monitoring scientists suggest citizens still don’t believe Alberta has a good grasp of the overall impacts of the tar sands/oil sands.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published August 17, 2022.



in Biodiversity & Habitat, Canada, Environmental Justice, First Peoples, Health & Safety, Legal & Regulatory, Sub-National Governments, Tar Sands / Oil Sands

The latest climate news and analysis, direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Related Posts

Arctic Circle/flickr
COP Conferences

‘Remarkable Rebuke’: 130 U.S, EU Legislators Ask UN to Ditch Fossil CEO as COP 28 Chair

May 23, 2023
330
Inspiration 4 Photos/flickr
Climate Impacts & Adaptation

Cooling Upper Atmosphere Has Scientists ‘Very Worried’

May 23, 2023
190
Jon Sullivan/flickr
Clean Electricity Grid

Ontario Overrules Cities to Push Gas Plant Expansions

May 23, 2023
813

Comments 1

  1. Frances Deverell says:
    9 months ago

    It’s unbelievable that they would wait so long to deal with the tailings ponds and then say the only solution is to dump it in the river. What ever happened to the promise decades ago they would dry it out? Why haven’t they been developing filtration and water treatment solutions. And Guilbeault is complicit (as all environment ministers before him.) They have set no standards. And here they are setting rules for dumping in the river when they should be writing the standards and rules for a solution that doesn’t put anything but clean water back in the river. They’ve had 40 years to solve this. Don’t tell me you haven’t had enough time. The oil sector never thought it was their problem to solve. It’s criminal negligence and big oil execs should be going to jail for their negligence.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Trending Stories

University of Oxford Press Office/flickr

PEROVSKITES: Qcells Plans First Production Line for ‘Miracle’ Solar Cell

May 23, 2023
348
Jon Sullivan/flickr

Ontario Overrules Cities to Push Gas Plant Expansions

May 23, 2023
813
Activités culturelles UdeM/Flickr

Climate Concerns Drive Job Choices for 40% of Workers Under 40

May 23, 2023
127
Inspiration 4 Photos/flickr

Cooling Upper Atmosphere Has Scientists ‘Very Worried’

May 23, 2023
190
Arctic Circle/flickr

‘Remarkable Rebuke’: 130 U.S, EU Legislators Ask UN to Ditch Fossil CEO as COP 28 Chair

May 23, 2023
330
/Snappy Goat

Solar Airships Could Decarbonize Long Distance Travel

May 16, 2023
402

Recent Posts

Andrés Nieto Porras/wikimedia commons

‘Carbon Neutral’, ‘Net-Zero’ Claims Face Global Greenwash Crackdown

May 23, 2023
176
peellden/Wikimedia Commons

Scientists Sound Alarm on Methane Emissions, Habitat Hazards at U.S. Hydro Dams

May 23, 2023
137
nakashi/flickr

Tokyo Residents Rally to Protect Trees, Stop Skyscrapers in Iconic Urban Park

May 21, 2023
450
http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/unrecognizable-from-the-original-design-suburban-renovations-disprove-cookie-cutter-stereotype

Embrace Suburbs, Exurbs in Climate Planning, Researchers Urge Cities

May 21, 2023
41
Trocker767/wikimedia commons

Renewable-Powered Greenhouse Brings Fresh Produce Bounty to Gjoa Haven Inuit

May 21, 2023
53
HarmvdB/pixabay

Vermont Gas Utility Pivots to Heat Pumps

May 21, 2023
345
Next Post
Steve Jurvetson/flickr

The Other Kind of Climate Change: Even a ‘Limited’ Nuclear War Would Trigger Starvation, Kill Billions

The Energy Mix - The climate news you need

Copyright 2023 © Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy and Copyright
  • Cookie Policy

Proudly partnering with…

scf_withtagline
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}