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Alberta tailings ponds leaking contaminants into water supply: report

Article online since December 9th 2008, 1:00
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EDMONTON - The toxic tailings ponds from Alberta's oilsands mines leak enough contaminated water into the region's aquifers every day to almost fill five Olympic-sized swimming pools, according to a new analysis by two environmental groups.

And if all the oilsands projects now on the books are constructed, that contamination could grow nearly sevenfold and potentially leave a massive legacy of poisoned groundwater.

"This is one of the ominous parts of this," said Matt Price of Environmental Defence, who authored the report being released Tuesday.

"It could very well take a generation for this stuff to show up. And by that time, you can't stop it."

But the director of oilsands environmental management for the Alberta government said the report makes several mistaken assumptions.

Oilsands tailings are created as hot water is used to separate bitumen from the sand and clay that holds it. Between 2,000 and 2,500 litres of tailings are produced for every barrel of bitumen. Tailings ponds now cover about 130 square kilometres in the Fort McMurray area.

Those "ponds" are held in place by earthen dikes. Most of the leakage is captured by ditches, barriers or wells, but some water still escapes.

Price and analysts from the environmental think-tank Pembina Consulting collected data from oilsands companies themselves on how much water they expect is leaking from their tailings ponds.

The total was just over 11 million litres a day. Over the course of a year, that's enough water to fill the Toronto Skydome 2 1/2 times.

The tailings are known to be harmful, containing chemicals that are both toxic and carcinogenic.

Studies have shown that wetlands irrigated with tailings water suffer increased mortality for birds and slower growth for plants. Last April, about 500 ducks died when they landed on one of the ponds.

Price says not enough is known about the flow of water once it seeps into the ground or whether it finds its way into the Athabasca River system.

"The joint panels (reviewing the oilsands project applications) keep on saying, 'We need more information on groundwater. We don't have it, but here's your approval anyway.'

"This stuff will eventually make its way down river. You might be building up this massive pulse of contaminants into the groundwater now that are going to show up."

But Preston McEachern of Alberta Environment says that most of the seepage from tailings ponds goes into aquifers so deep that they themselves are contaminated by flowing through the oilsands.

"It's dirty water, just like process-affected water in tailings ponds," he said.

As well, those deep aquifers have almost no contact with the Athabasca River system, he said.

"These seepages are not connecting directly with the external environment."

Even the amount that would make its way into the watershed is insignificant given the amount of dilution it would face, McEachern said. The entire amount of seepage the report says is released in one day is roughly the equivalent of 10 seconds of flow for the Athabasca River, even during winter.

McEachern also disputes the amount of water the report claims is seeping from the tailings ponds.

However, he does acknowledge that the long-term fate of the mine tailings is an issue.

"With respect to long-term contamination of groundwater aquifers, yes, it's a problem."

Some ponds do sit on top of shallow aquifers, which now must be continually pumped out and the water poured back into the ponds - not a permanent solution.

But McEachern said the government's understanding of groundwater in the area is that it's improving all the time.

"It's unfair to say we don't know enough to manage our risks."

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Your comments

Susan Obaa

Comment online since December 28th 2008
This article on the tailings ponds is disturbing. Why aren't the companies who produce this waste made financially liable for damage to Alberta now ( leaking tailings) and in the future? No one seems to know exactly how to handle these tailings so that they won't affect the water system in the future - it seems too high a price to pay to give consent to these operations based on the hope that a solution will be found. Who has the right to make a decision without guarantees on something that will affect all. Isn't the current economic crisis evidence enough that greed causes irresposibility by those who make decisions - who will take their money and run and will not be around to deal with the consequences of environmental damage. Our water is precious - when will we learn to respect that?