Are the Sacred Headwaters being sacrificed for the Tar Sands?
The Athabasca Oil Sands are the largest single source of greenhouse
gases in Canada. They are also one of the largest users of methane, also
known as natural gas.
Bitumen extraction is an energy intensive process that requires between
700 and 1200 cubic feet of natural gas to produce one barrel of bitumen.
The natural gas is used to heat water, which is mixed with tar sands to
separate the crude bitumen (a semi-solid form of crude oil), from
silica, clay and other minerals.
The trouble is, natural gas, like other fossil fuels, is getting to be
in short supply. The biggest threat to continued tar sands production is
a lack of access to methane; is that where the Sacred Headwaters comes
in? According to some sources there is more than 8 trillion cubic feet
worth of natural gas to be exploited in the Klappan area, also known as
the Sacred Headwaters.
When those of us that live in the northwest look at the Sacred
Headwaters, we see the source of our three great rivers, the Nass, the
Skeena and the Stikine. For us, these rivers represent the line which
bring life into our region, through the salmon to bears, eagles and
orcas. They also draw people from throughout the world to our region,
injecting millions of dollars a year into the northwest economy.
I'm afraid the executives of oil companies don't see the Sacred
Headwaters for what they are, one of the lynch pins of the entire
northwest ecosystem. Destroy the Sacred Headwaters and we destroy the
salmon; if we destroy the salmon we destroy the eagles, bears and orcas.
Even our coastal forests need the nutrients provided by spawning salmon.
The executives of companies like Shell don't see, or they don't care,
that the Sacred Headwaters is the heart of the northwest. All they see
is the opportunity to make billions of dollars off those trillions of
cubic feet of methane, and then billions of dollars more using that
methane to produce crude. If the needs of the people of this region
don't figure into the equation, the needs of our ecosystems are
considered even less important by these multinational corporations.
The British Columbia government, as much as they will declare themselves
green, are not concerned about the environmental disaster that will be
caused by extracting coalbed methane from the Sacred Headwaters. Nor are
they concerned that the natural gas that would be created by such a
project would most likely be used to fuel the single most carbon
intensive project in the country, if not in all of North America. They
are so unconcerned about these issues that they are offering incentives
to companies like Shell to extract British Columbia's energy resources.
The worst part is, this project doesn't even require an environmental
assessment to go forward, and minimal consultation with communities and
First Nations. If the government was truly interested in being green
they would scrap the gas tax, halt coalbed methane extraction in the
Sacred Headwaters and not feed the tar sand monster in Alberta.
from: G.Coons@leg.bc.ca
