A new study released by Environment Canada has found that oilsands tailings ponds are leaking into the Athabasca River, but being upstream of the leaks, Athabasca County water is not at risk, according to the local water services commission.
“We wouldn’t be taking water from where that leaks in,” Gary Buchanan, chief administrative officer for the Aspen Regional Water Services Commission (ARWSC), said.
Tests are usually done twice a year on the water the ARWSC pulls from the Athabasca River, though an extra suite of tests was done in the 2013/2014 year due to concerns about contaminants in an Oct. 31 coal slurry spill that entered the river.
Come spring, as the river thaws and sediments are stirred up from the river bed, including any deposited by the coal slurry plume that passed Athabasca in mid-November, Buchanan said procedures are in place to control intake from the river if needed.
“We can make sure that we minimize the pulling in of any contaminants,” Buchanan said.
Most recently, tests were completed in February, and these samples are currently away for processing. Buchanan said no further testing is required.
“If something happens 100 miles away, downstream from our plant, what are we testing for?” he said of the Environment Canada findings.
Harvey Scott with the Keepers of the Athabasca watershed protection group said the study merely confirms what has been known for years, and he is concerned.
“The long and short of it is there are bad things in those ponds … that do bioaccumulate in the sediments and work their way up the food chain, through the fish to humans,” Scott said.
Some fish living in the Athabasca have wide habitat ranges and are capable of carrying contaminants upstream, and when fished, they can spread those contaminants to humans, Scott said.
“We hope beyond hope that the government will do something about it,” Scott said of the study’s findings.
Dr. John O’Connor, a board member with the Keepers of the Athabasca and a family physician in Fort McKay, has been an advocate against the oilsands and their negative health impacts for 21 years.
“This (study) is the latest in a long line of studies that indicate there’s an adverse environmental impact,” said O’Connor. “There are people in the path of this with significant health problems.”
While unable to comment on communities upstream of the leaks, O’Connor said that is a question Public Health should be asking.
“This is further emphasis for the need for health studies to be taken,” he said.
The Environment Canada study used new technology to isolate chemicals naturally occurring in groundwater around tailings ponds from those actually released from the ponds.
Because of the resemblance between samples of oilsands process-affected water (OSPW), groundwater samples adjacent to tailings ponds, and samples collected beneath the Athabasca river, the study concluded that, “OSPW affected groundwater is reaching the river system.”
“We’re delighted that Environment Canada scientists had the courage to release this study,” Scott said.
