User:Jabyrd3

Category:Nature Category:Natural resources Category:Fossil fuels Category:Bituminous sands Category:Bituminous sands of Canada

=Environmental and Economic Impact of Bitumen Mining Operations in the Athabasca Oil Sands=

The deposits of bitumen, which is crude oil degraded by bacterial digestion, in sands underneath the Canadian province of Alberta represents a massive stockpile of petroleum reserves. It is estimated that by 2030, the extraction of crude from the oil sands there could be as high as 5 million barrels per day. The full environmental effects of this process are not, as of 2009, comprehensively understood. This uncertainty, when combined with the obvious economic motivators, has generated a sizable controversy in America and Canada.

The Process
For each barrel of crude, the forest above the sands has to be removed. Then, two tons of peat and soil need to be excavated per barrel. Next, 2 tons of the bitumen laced sand is boiled in water. This produces waste water and bitumen. The waste water is then discarded and collected into tailing ponds, the soil is replaced, and the bitumen is upgraded before it is transported to be refined.

Economic Impact
Both the Canadian government and the US Department of Energy claim that at least 174 billion barrels of oil could be extracted from Canada alone, positioning that country near the top of the international energy supply hierarchy.

Independent figures indicate that instead of 174 billion gallons of crude oil, Canada is home to at least 174 billion barrels of oil sand bitumen. This is an important distinction: 174 billion barrels of oil sand are not equivalent to 174 billion barrels of crude: due to the inefficient nature of the extraction, upgrading, and refining processes, the markets and the governments involved are overestimating the value of these oil sands. Because the hydrocarbons present in the sands manifest as a solid mixture of sand, bitumen, and water at standard atmospheric pressures and temperatures, the cost to upgrade and then refine them into usable fuel is much greater than the cost of refining the traditional liquid crude oil.

Regardless, the Canadian oil sands are capable of shifting the landscape of petroleum production away from OPEC, but falling fuel prices have stalled many ventures aimed at taking advantage of the bitumen deposits.

Carbon Emissions
Although the final product is the same, crude from tar sands can be said to be "dirtier"; harvesting tar sands generates 15-40% more carbon than extracting traditional crude due to the high temperatures needed for the upgrading process. Critics worry that emissions from the sands could hamper Canada's ability to meet their obligations under the Kyoto Protocol.

Destruction of Forests
The sands lay below an area roughly the size of Florida. In 2006, at least 772 square miles of boreal forest had been deforested solely by oil companies. This is a drastic jump since 2003, when only 160 square miles had been affected. Deforestation drastically damages the atmosphere, wildlife, water cycle and soil quality.

Tailing Ponds
The waste water resulting from the process of extracting the bitumen from the sand is left in massive "tailing ponds", which currently blanket ~50 sq mi of Canadian wilderness. The oil companies operating in the region are banned from dumping the water into the Athabasca River. Common compounds present in the waste water are naphthenic acids and polycyclic aromatic compounds, among others. These highly toxic ponds are dangerous to local wildlife, especially migratory birds that mistake them for safe resting areas. The direct effects of the waste water on humans has not been extensively studied yet, but its effect on other wildlife is a possible indicator of negative health consequences in humans.

"In 2006 John O'Connor, a family physician who flew in weekly to treat patients at the health clinic in Fort Chip, told a radio interviewer that he had in recent years seen five cases of cholangiocarcinoma—a cancer of the bile duct that normally strikes one in 100,000 people. Fort Chip has a population of around 1,000; statistically it was unlikely to have even one case ."

Controversy
The environmental damage caused by tar sands has been criticized extensively in the media and among environmentalist groups. One group, Stop the Tar Sands Operations Permanently, has even gone so far as to call the sands "the dirtiest source of oil in the world". The debate became a widely-publicized international issue after ~500 migrating waterfowl died in a tailing pond last April.

Government Regulation
In accordance with their land grants/licenses, oil companies operating in Alberta are required to have a detailed reclamation strategy in place in order to mitigate the environmental damage done caused by deforestation and their tailings. They also must obtain permission from various governmental agencies if they wish to create a new tailing pond.

These laws have barely had an effect at this juncture: there is not a single reclaimed tailing pond yet; Suncor, the oldest commercial venture in the region, has been allowed to mine there since 1967, but their original pond has not been reclaimed.

On March 19, 2008, Alberta issued the first land reclamation certificate to Syncrude Canada Ltd. This document states that Syncrude have fulfilled their obligation to return 104 hectares of land to its original state There are at least 42,000 hectares of "disturbed" land; 6,500 of those are currently undergoing reclamation.