Alberta MP urges Stelmach to safeguard river from oilsands plan
By Trish Audette and Mariam Ibrahim,
Edmonton Journal
June 17, 2010
EDMONTON — A Fort McMurray Conservative MP wants Premier Ed Stelmach to protect a northern Alberta river and send a "clear signal" to the oil industry about safekeeping freshwater sources.
In a two-page letter sent last month, Fort McMurray-Athabasca MP Brian Jean took aim at Nexen Inc.'s plans for the Long Lake oilsands project, which include tapping into the Clearwater River.
"The Clearwater River not only has a significantly lower discharge than the Athabasca River . . . but (it) also supports a unique and fragile ecosystem," Jean wrote.
Nexen has filed a water application in April to Alberta Environment.
It has triggered widespread criticism from environmentalists worried about the effects of drawing thousands of cubic metres a day from a river that has been flagged for conservation by the Canadian Heritage Rivers Board.
"I wanted to draw the attention to the premier of what was taking place in northern Alberta," Jean said Thursday, adding the issue has been brought to him by "many, many, many constituents."
Jean said he was speaking on behalf of himself and his constituents, not the federal government.
For Jean, what makes the Nexen project different is what he calls a precedent-setting move to use fresh water to get at underground oilsands deposits through steam-assisted gravity drainage.
Nexen spokesman David Coll said the company's water application is for future upgrading, not for the process of steam-assisted gravity drainage.
"There appears to be a misunderstanding," he said. "It's not a precedent. Every other upgrader in Alberta uses surface water. Were we to use this water for (steam-assisted gravity drainage) it would be a precedent and we would fully understand Mr. Jean's concerns."
The company's application is for a licence to withdraw an average of 17,000 cubic metres of water per day from the Clearwater River, an amount that Coll said is less than 0.2 per cent of the river's mean annual flow.
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