Alberta has a huge resource in the Oil Sands but their development under the current Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage SAGD system can result in a lot of environmental damage.
The major concern is the cumulative impacts of access roads, seismic lines, core holes, well pads, gas supply lines, power lines, oil pipelines, water supply lines and waste water disposal wells. These developments fragment the forest impacting animal populations and reducing timber harvests. The use of water for steam also results in depletion of freshwater reserves, acidification of the landscape and regional ground water contamination.
Oil sand development will impact 138,000 km2. This is 21% of Alberta’s landmass. We have to mitigate these effects. It would be nice to simply stop the production of oil but our society is dependent on it so we will have to develop it. If we are going to develop it then we need to make a plan to do it.
It has been shown that if forestry companies and oil companies plan together they can reduce the number of roads by 34% and the number of cleared areas by 16%. The government of Alberta needs to take advantage of these ideas. We need to stop issuing leases until there is a provincial land use plan that includes protected areas for wildlife, cumulative impact limits to reduce forest fragmentation, integrated land management plans to reduce our impacts and oil companies need to be held to using the best practices.
Aside for SAGD there are also solvent based methods of oil sand extraction and really promising are electrical heating methods of oil extraction. The oil sands are a non-renewable resource. We will only get one chance to develop them
George Read
Leader, Green Party of Alberta
posted by George Read @ 12:26 AM
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