4 billion litres is the volume of toxic leakage that spills into the environment each year from Alberta’s toxic Tar Sands. A new report released by Environmental Defence uses industry data to arrive at a conservative estimate of tar sands tailings ponds leakage into the environment. The report, 11 Million Litres a Day: The Tar Sands’ Leaking Legacy finds that over 4 billion litres of contaminated tailings water already enters the groundwater each year, and new projects could expand this number to over 25 billion litres within a decade.
“This massive leakage from toxic tailings ponds are yet another reason why tar sands oil is dirty oil,” said Matt Price, Program Manager, Environmental Defence.
Tailings ponds are known to contain dozens of toxic contaminants like heavy metals, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and naphthenic acids. Naphthenic acids in particular break down very slowly and therefore pose a long-term threat to the groundwater of the region. The tailings ponds sit upriver from the Peace-Athabasca Delta, one of the world’s largest inland freshwater deltas and home to Fort Chipewyan where residents already have serious concerns about pollution and their health.
Tailings ponds are built on bare ground with walls made out of earthen materials. Both Alberta and federal legislation prohibits the discharge of toxic materials into the environment, but tailings ponds leakage is sanctioned by the Alberta permitting process. The report calls on the Canadian government to enforce the federal Fisheries Act to end the leakage problem, given a pattern of inaction by Alberta.
“The destruction in the tar sands will not stop until the federal government steps in to enforce its environmental laws,” said Price. “Canadians should not have to carry the shame of being the producers of such dirty oil.”
11 Million Litres a Day: The Tar Sands’ Leaking Legacy: www.environmentaldefence.ca
The Pembina Institute: www.OilSandsWatch.org.
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