By Jack O’Hea Athabasca Tar Sands

Basic Facts Location: Northwestern Alberta, Canada – most centered around Fort McMurray What is it? “oil sands”= loose sands/partially consolidated sandstone saturated with petroleum (bitumen/tar) Originally used by First Nation people to gum canoes Since mid 20th century, projects have been in place to extract petroleum for use Underlies 54,000 square miles of boreal forest and muskeg (peat bogs), contains about 1.7 trillion barrels of bitumen Efficiency: the energy returned on energy invested is 5 to 6 times greater

Bitumen Extraction Mostly surfaced mined; deposits lay 1-3 meters under the surface, are 40-60 meters deep and lay atop flat limestone In situ processing uses steam-assisted gravity drainage to extract deeper deposits After surface mining excavation, hot water and caustic soda are added; this slurry is piped to an extraction plant, agitated, and the oil is skimmed from the top This process creates large amounts of tailings, waste from mining that is highly toxic – it is contained in large tailings ponds

Economic aspects In the 21st century, production has increased highly with oil prices; in 2006, 1.126 million barrels per day, and in 2012, 1.8 MBPD –$200 billion USD invested from 2000-2015 US is largest importer of Canadian oil – Proposed Keystone XL pipeline from Alberta to Gulf Coast, as well as North Gateway project in Kitimat, British Columbia (rejected by Trudeau Nov. 2016) Fort McMurray became a boomtown, growing rapidly to house workers- after oil price drop in 2015, large exodus of workers (35,000 jobs lost in Alberta)

Environmental Impact ~0.19% of Alberta’s boreal forest has been disturbed by mining – companies are required to restore the land to “equivalent capability” High water usage- one cubic meter of oil requires 2-4.5 m^3 of water – water is diverted from Athabasca river (~1% total average annual flow used for mining) Tailings ponds leaking into Athabasca River (largest freshwater elta in the world), polluted water entering it will exceed 1 bil. M^3 by 2020 – total area coverage by ponds is 176 km^2 Pipeline leaks are difficult to detect- one 2015 leak spilled 5000 m^3 of bitumen + sand + wastewater

Environmental Impact cont. Energy to process bitumen uses natural gas – in 2007, ~1 bil. Ft^3 used daily (40% of Albertas total usage) Production emits 5-15% more carbon dioxide than average crude oil production Oil sands account for 6.8% of total Canadian greenhouse gas emissions and 0.15% of global emissions Large amounts of animal habitat have been disturbed- human presence and construction disturbs migration of Caribou, water easily polluted in peat bogs In 2008, a flock of ducks rested in one tailings pond and died– several known toxins and carcinogens were found at elevated levels in fish living and spawning in area

Tailings Ponds

Bitumen Processing

Works Cited "Athabasca oil sands." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 17 Feb. 2017. Web. 17 Feb. 2017. Austen, Ian. "Oil Sands Boom Dries Up in Alberta, Taking Thousands of Jobs With It." The New York Times. The New York Times, 12 Oct. 2015. Web. 17 Feb. 2017. "Canada's tar sands landscape from the air – in pictures." The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 03 Aug. 2015. Web. 17 Feb. 2017. Taylor, Alan. "The Alberta Tar Sands." The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, 25 Sept. 2014. Web. 17 Feb. 2017. "Top 10 Facts About the Alberta Oil Sands." DeSmogBlog. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Feb. 2017.