Environmental Effects:
When extracting tar sands from the deposits, a common form of extraction is called In Situ. This process uses high pressure steam to heat up the deposit for a month or two. After the months, the steaming is stopped, and after a little bit of time, bitumen leaks into the dug wells where it will be pumped out and transported to processing plants. With this process, a lot of water is used and wasted because once the water is used, it cannot be reused due to the toxins/ chemicals it came in contact with and is now carrying. The reason this has a negative effect on the environment is because the toxic water is not disposed of properly, as there is no proper way of disposing it. The contaminated water is placed into tailing ponds which are manmade, and its purpose is to hold all of the contaminated waters that come from the tar sands productions. Because the ponds are extremely large, many birds often try to land on them and when they come in contact with the tailing ponds, their health and lives are at risk due to the exposure of the chemicals.
These tailing ponds are so toxic that now, certain companies use propane canons to prevent ducks from landing in them. Not only birds are affected by these tailing ponds, fish have also been suffering from the chemical exposure, as some of the tailings run into rivers and lakes. For example, in a reserve downstream from the Athabasca tar sands site, fish have been growing bumps and are developing other mutations/ deformities over the past few years, at around this time, tar sands production activity have also increased.
Along with the water pollution that is occurring due to the tar sands projects, a lot of greenhouse gases are being emitted in the production of crude oil from the sands. The amount of greenhouse gases this process emits is what makes tar sands the most harmful source of oil in the world. The production and processing of the sand was responsible for 3-5 % of Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions in 2008, and the percentage has only been increasing the past two years. Emissions from the processing plants and sand sites have increased so much that it has become the largest contributor to our nation’s greenhouse gas emissions, and might even be able to prevent Canada’s duty to reduce the emissions, and can even go over the limits of previous years, as the emissions have only been increasing with the rising activity of tar sand operations. It’s not only greenhouse gasses that have been released into the atmosphere, other substances like nitrogen oxide, sulphur oxide, particulate matter and other hazardous organic compounds. All of these chemicals are really dangerous for our health and can cause many health problems, but that will be further explained in the health/social concerns section of this assignment.
Social/Health Effects:
Most people who are aware of the environmental consequences do not realize that it’s only the wildlife that is affected. With all of the chemicals like sulphur oxide and nitrogen oxide, greenhouse gasses, particulate matter, and hazardous organic compounds being released into our atmosphere it’s obvious that they are damaging to our health. Breathing in sulphur and nitrogen oxides can lead problems regarding the respiratory system. Also, particulate matter has been linked to many different kinds of health problems like asthma, emphysema and a number of heart diseases. While exposure to those substances is hazardous, the worst and most dangerous would be exposure to the volatile organic compounds. Exposure to these compounds can cause even more serious problems like brain damage and even certain types of cancer. Other parts that would affect our health would include the water contamination that occurs during sand processing to obtain the oil. The water that is put into tailing ponds eventually leak into streams, river basins and lakes. The contaminated water contains toxic chemicals that can cause deformities and even death if animals were to come in contact with it. This affects us by contaminating our drinking water/water resources and spreading disease and causing deformities and mutations of animals that we may eat. The toxins end up being consumed by the fish in the rivers/lakes and when we eat the fish, we would end up consuming the toxins as well. In communities and reserves downstream the Athabasca Tar sands deposit have been suffering from higher cancer rates, the more common forms would be leukemia, lymphoma, lupus and more rare cancers. These communities have higher cancer rates than other areas of Canada, so doctors and scientists have been linking these statistics to the tar sands operations and toxic tailing ponds that have been contaminating water. Another piece of evidence to prove that the toxins are the cause of these increased cancer rates would be the visible deformities of fish downstream from the sites. The fish have been growing lumps, developing humpbacks, and have crooked tails, again these deformities increased as the tar sands development and projects became more active.
Politically, Canada will become a more powerful country with the help of the tar sands because of the world’s constant demand/need for oil. Other crude oil reserves have been decreasing, and Alberta has the largest tar sand deposit in the world, this will also provide huge financial benefits to Canada as a country.
Economic Effects:
Tar Sands Oil (refined bitumen) is very valuable because it provides us with crude oil, which at the moment is hard to find. Sources of crude oil are decreasing, but the demand for the oil continues to increase every year, this will provide Canada and Alberta with plenty of financial benefits in the future, Since Alberta holds the largest reserve of tar sands. Our economy will become stronger as the need for crude oil increases, according to scientists, Canada will eventually become the main source of synthetic crude oil. But of course a lot of money must be put out in order for us to continually process the bitumen and refine it into usable oil. The good thing about tar sands oil at the moment is that there is a lot of it here; the only bad thing is that the cost of refining and upgrading the natural bitumen is extremely costly, and ironically, uses up a lot of natural gas (approximately 600 million cubic feet) each day. Particularly in Alberta, many skilled trades’ people end up working in a tar sands site, so around that area it is really hard to find a skilled trade’s person. Lastly, everyone has noticed that the price of gas just continues to rise, if we have so much oil in the tar sands, why is this happening? The reason for this is because majority of our oil ends up being exported to the United States as the synthetic crude is their main source of energy.
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