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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Metals from oilsands harmful to fish: study

Critical of monitoring, counters government

By: Bob Weber

Posted: 08/31/2010 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

JEFF MCINTOSH / THE CANADIAN PRESS ARCHIVES Enlarge Image

Tailings drain into a pond at the Syncrude oilsands mine facility near Fort McMurray, Alta.

EDMONTON -- A new study shows heavy metals including lead and mercury being released from oilsands facilities into the air and water of northern Alberta are already above levels considered hazardous to fish.

The study, published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, takes aim at the province's environmental monitoring and dismisses government claims that the contaminants come from natural sources.

"Contrary to claims made by industry and government in the popular press, the oilsands industry substantially increases the loadings of toxic (priority pollutants) into the Athabasca River and its tributaries via air and water pathways," the report says.

But while the Alberta government accepts that some contamination may be coming from industry, it says there still isn't enough information to know if that's the main source.

"It's very difficult in many cases to attribute water-quality trends to one particular factor," said Kim Westcott of Alberta Environment. "It's quite a complicated thing to tease apart."

In 2008, David Schindler's team set up monitoring stations on the Athabasca and several of its tributaries. Some stations were upstream of both the oilsands and its facilities. Others were in the middle of the bitumen deposits but upstream of industry, and the rest were downstream of both.

The team found heavy metals did not increase until the streams flowed past oilsands facilities, especially when they flowed past new construction.

"As soon as there was over 25 per cent watershed disturbance we had big increases in all of the contaminants that we measured -- just stripping of the soil and trees in preparation for mining or building," said Schindler.

The contaminants were also being emitted from ongoing operations, the research found.

Schindler found metal levels increased in spring, as would be expected if a winter's worth of deposition on snow and ice were being flushed downstream during the melting season.

The metals involved include not only lead and mercury -- both neurotoxins -- but also cadmium, copper, nickel, silver and seven other metals the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency considers priority pollutants.

Levels of the metals remain below human health thresholds. But concentrations at some test sites at some times of the year are already greater than those set by the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment to protect marine ecosystems -- sometimes much greater.

Cadmium levels ranged between 30 and 200 times over the guideline. Silver levels were 13 times higher than recommended at one site, and copper, lead, mercury, nickel and zinc were five times the suggested limit.

Those toxins are being passed along to animals eaten as food, said Schindler.

"Any animal that browses in the area is going to be taking in higher levels of the same contaminants," he said.

-- The Canadian Press

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition August 31, 2010 A7

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