Water is needed in huge amounts in tarsands production and in all other construction stages of tarsands infrastructure across the continent. It takes five litres of water to produce one of usable petrol. There is also water used to move gas, build new tar pits or that water which becomes polluted in the outlying areas. Waste tailings ponds are so vast as to be visible from outer space at this early point in production. Water is now being privatized in slow motion, as “access rights” are available in Alberta. As production grows and climate change continues to parch southern Albertan land, more and more water will be needed to help supply fuel for the American market. This water will ultimately be diverted from rivers, lakes, farms and cities throughout Canada; the water levels in the Athabasca River have already dropped several meters. The Deh Cho/Mackenzie River is already threatened, both from development along its valley and it is downstream from tar sands operations. A generation ago, the Athabasca River was clear and drinking was common. Now, those that live with the river consider it poison and off-limits.
[Tarsand Mock] Oiling up the Coast
Proposed tanker route into Kitimat.
Harper shrugs off 35-year ban on risky tanker traffic.
By David Beers April 30, 2007
TheTyee.ca
People on British Columbia's north coast have come to rely on a couple of assumptions.
One, oil tankers are forbidden to sail close to their jagged shore. Too risky.
Two, Albertans and their oil schemes are a safe, comfortable distance away.
Ex-official slams BLM's energy plans
By BOBBY MAGILL The Daily Sentinel
http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/04/23/4_23_1a_B...
Monday, April 23, 2007
DENVER — When Ann Morgan was serving as Colorado state director of the Bureau of Land Management between 1997 and 2002, she saw firsthand, she said, how President George W. Bush’s administration immediately ordered the agency to make energy development top priority on public land when Bush took office in 2001.
Pipeline oil spill raises questions among residents
Angela Hall, The Leader-Post
Published: Saturday, April 21, 2007
http://www.canada.com/reginaleaderpost/news/business_agriculture/story.h...
Even before an oil spill was detected near Glenavon last weekend, some area residents had questions about the underground pipelines that snake through their land.
Days before the spill from an Enbridge line on Sunday, the newly formed Saskatchewan Association of Pipeline Landowners had already scheduled Wednesday's meeting in Glenavon.
"Water is Life"
The Human Right to Water and Indigenous Peoples
Submission to the United Nations High Commissioner on Human Rights by the
International Indian Treaty Council, NGO in Special Consultative Status to the UN
Economic and Social Council
April 13, 2007
I. INTRODUCTION
The International Indian Treaty Council is pleased to respond to the High
Commissioner's invitation to submit information relevant to the Council on Human
Rights' requested study on the human right to water. We thank the High Commissioner
THE ONGOING CARBON AGE
BY DANIEL CASEY
APRIL 20, 2007
http://maisonneuve.org/index.php?&page_id=12&article_id=2714
Growing for black gold
http://www.canadianminingjournal.com/issues/ISarticle.asp?id=185949&stor...
By: Marilyn Scales
Price tag for all oil sands projects nears $100 billion
Canada's oil sands are the world's largest single petroleum resource, nearly 1.7 trillion barrels. Most of this country's recoverable reserves (175 billion out of 180 billion bbl) are found in the Athabasca oil sands.
Proposal alarms Chaplin
http://www.arkcity.net/stories/041607/com_0002.shtml
Oil pipeline officials may adjust their route
By FOSS FARRAR
Traveler Staff Writer
The Chaplin Nature Center west of Arkansas City may be harmed by an oil pipeline from Canada that would run through its property, a nature center manager said today.
Shawn Silliman, the center's naturalist, said a flag planted on the south side of the 230-acre Chaplin center property indicates that the pipeline would run through the property.
"To hell with Al Gore’s inconvenient truths; to purgatory with quisling scientists and their voluminous reports stating that Alberta’s tar sands—whether the oil there is blasted by natural gas, exploded by nukes, or even extracted in some fashion palatable to those wearing hemp or burlap—are an environmental disaster zone that, if exploited, will (by themselves) render null and void Canada’s commitment to Kyoto. Never mind. On that midsummer night, Harper, in search of foreign direct investment, was flush with energy, industry, and economic-growth models.
Before the corks are popped and the bubbly pouring, let us recall that this pipe has been declared "dead" more times than Elvis Presley. At the end of the Berger Inquiry from the 1970's, there was a moratorium placed on this pipe until A) final agreements [sic] were established with all nations from the Valley; B) protected areas and proper environmental plans for the rest were laid out.
Oil pipeline could bisect preserve
BY BECCY TANNER
http://www.kansas.com/196/story/45507.html
The Wichita Eagle
Plans to extend an oil pipeline through Kansas have some people concerned it could encroach on the Chaplin Nature Center near Arkansas City.
TransCanada energy company says it was not aware of the center when it created the preliminary pipeline route, which goes through the 220-acre preserve.
Now that the company knows about the concerns, "we are currently reviewing alternatives to this routing," said Shela Shapiro, communications specialist for TransCanada.
