Toxic chemical levels higher in water downstream of Alberta oilsands plants
[This photo shows how at least one company is bulldozing right to the Athabasca River's edge.
Photograph by: Erin Kelly, University of Alberta , edmontonjournal.com]
By Hanneke Brooymans, edmontonjournal.com
December 7, 2009
EDMONTON — Levels of toxic chemicals in the Athabasca watershed are up to 50 times higher downstream of oilsands development, a new University of Alberta study has found.
The research, spearheaded by renowned aquatics ecologist David Schindler, also estimates that Suncor and Syncrude deposit the equivalent of an oil spill’s worth of bitumen into the surrounding environment each year.
Schindler said the idea for the study, published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, came to him in 2007 shortly after he spoke to native leaders about research he had done on river flows in the area.
“I had lunch with them and they said, ‘We have all these problems that are probably related to things in the water. Can’t you do some study of that too?’ ”
He was also skeptical of claims made by the provincial government which said that the river was unaffected by oilsands development and contained only naturally occurring concentrations of chemicals.
So he gathered together a crack team of scientists, including a now-retired chief chemist from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s lab in Juneau, Alaska who had done work following the impacts of the Exxon Valdez oil spill.
The team sampled upstream of the bitumen-bearing McMurray formation, within the formation but upstream of development, and then downstream of industry activity on many developed tributaries. Samples were taken in winter and summer of both the river and stream water and snowpack. The study area stretched from the Athabasca River at an area upstream of Fort McMurray to Fort Chipewyan.
The samples were analyzed for a class of chemicals called polycyclic aromatic compounds, some of which are known carcinogens.
The concentrations found were in parts per trillion. While those levels are low, they are toxic to fish embryos, Schindler said.
“I think industry and government have been right – there is a small amount of that stuff in the river as a result of the natural formation. But I thought what was pretty incredible is to claim that that’s all there was with that scale of development. What’s obvious is the development has increased those concentrations several fold.”
The chemicals are dispersed through two main modes: on airborne particles from plant stacks and dusty mine sites; and through run-off from developed sites. The research paper contains one photo which shows development almost right to the edge of the Athabasca River.
The chemicals were not found in samples taken near Fort Chipewyan, a community where rates of some cancers are higher than expected. But Schindler said because the chemicals like to stick to particles, by the time they wash that far down the river they’re more likely to be found in the river bottom than in the water samples. Followup research on this is planned, he said.
The full paper will be available at the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science website at www.pnas.org.
Schindler said he thinks the federal government should take on a more thorough monitoring program in the area, with the provincial government joining in and industry paying for the program. The program should be overseen by a panel of independent scientists.
“These results should be subject to an annual public report, that’s made public, that’s not coated in candy the way a lot of the releases we’ve seen recently have been,” Schindler said. “Just tell people what’s happening the way it is. If it’s good news, fine. If it’s bad news, they still ought to know.”
hbrooymans@thejournal.canwest.com
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