A study released in October called for urgent attention from the world's scientific community on the impact of oil sands activities on contamination. The study, Does the Alberta Tar Sands Industry Pollute? The Scientific Evidence by Kevin Timoney and Peter Lee confirmed that current levels of pollution found in water, river and lake sediment, and in fish in the area affected by oil sands production present human health concerns. The study also reported that certain types of contamination are increasing over time. The authors suggest "there is an urgent need for information about the impacts of tar sands activities" as these operations are expected to triple over the next decade.

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One issue addressed by the paper concerned levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) that are found in oil sands.

What are polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons? PAHs are found in oil sands. PAHs are a collection of over 100 chemicals formed during burning of coal, oil and gas, garbage and other substances including tobacco. Some PAHs are carcinogenic, create abnormalities, or increase the number of mutations in animals or humans. Some PAHs range from being nontoxic to extremely toxic. The EPA has classified seven PAH compounds to be probable human carcinogens. While PAHs mostly enter the environment as a release to air they can also enter surface water through discharges or to soils if they escape contaminant.

The largest increase of pollutants in the study found was for dibenzothiophenes, flourenes, naphthalenes, and phenanthrenes/anthracenes in the Muskeg River. They were found to be as much as 15 times higher than upstream concentrations. While the study could not confirm the source was from oil sands development, it stated that mining was the mostly likely explanation for these increases. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has determined that chrysene to be a probable human carcinogen. Exposure to naphthalenes are associated with hemolytic anemia, damage to the liver and neurological damage in infants.

Other key findings of the study:

• Levels of PAHs in sediment of the Athabasca River are currently twice that observed to induce liver cancers in fishes. Sediments from the lower Athabasca River and its delta have been found toxic to several species of invertebrates and contain high levels of PAHs and metals.

• From 1999-2007 concentrations, certain types of PAHs in the lower Athabasca River Delta increased.

• From 1976 to 2005, increasing concentrations in the lower Athabasca River walleye and lake whitefish pose a human health risk.

• Downstream of one of the oil sands tailing ponds, concentrations of certain chemicals such as ammonia, aluminium, arsenic, lead and uranium were higher than upstream.

• The cumulative disturbance of the landscape such as from the removal of peat and wetlands could be increasing methylmercury levels in the Athabasca River walleye. Whitefish, sucker, goldeye, northern pike, and lake trout all exceed US EPA subsistence fisher guidelines.

Birds

The study also reported that annual bird mortality due to tailings pond exposure, while not known with certainty, could be between 458 and 5,037 birds. Estimates suggest actual bird deaths might range between 8,000 and 100,000 annually — much higher than what is reported by the Alberta government. Tailings ponds in the area affected by mining operations are 42 percent greater than natural water bodies. Tailings ponds are considered a habitat attractive to waterfowl especially in the winter when other natural lakes are frozen.

Leaking Tailing Ponds

According to the study, leaking pollution from one tailings pond (Tar Island operated by Suncor) appeared to increase the concentrations of certain pollutants in the Athabasca River by 2 to 4 times. These pollutants included naphthalene, barium, beryllium, boron, strontium, thallium, titanium, and uranium. In the surface water, six of these chemicals were found to exceed water quality guidelines or concentrations. The leaking of this tailing pond was calculated to be 5.5 to 5.7 million litres a day. The study also cited two other examples where tailings ponds leak contaminants into either surface or groundwater.

Others estimate that leaking from all tailings pond are 11 million litres a day increasing to 26 million litres per day by 2010.

The study acknowledged there is currently no way to quantitatively apportion contaminant levels into natural and industrial sources and there is "a paucity of relevant data available to the public" due in part to a decline in government monitoring. However, Timoney and Lee called for a comprehensive and peer-reviewed assessment of the cumulative impact of oil sands related development. The Cumulative Environmental Management Association (CEMA) is aimed at such a process but has as of yet been unable to reach agreement on issues such as water. The article also noted that federal agencies of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency or the Department of Fisheries and Oceans has not as of yet conducted such an assessment

The study compiled information from a number of sources including government data and peer-reviewed science; it focused on an area in the northeastern section of Alberta's Boreal undergoing both mining and drilling for oil sands.

Sources

Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR). 1995. Toxicological Profile for Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs). Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service.

Naphthalene Fact Sheet. Nu. 91-20-3. Technology Transfer Network Air Toxics Website.

Jeff Wells, Susan Casey-Lefkowitz, Gabriela Chavaria and Simon Dyer, Danger in the Nursery, Impacts on Birds of Tar Sands Oil Development in Canada's Boreal Forest, (Natural Resources Defence Council, Boreal Songbird Initiative, Pembina Institute, Washington D.C., 2008)

M. Price, 11 Million Litres a Day: The Tar Sands Leaking Legacy (Toronto, ON: Environmental Defense, 2008) (accessed October 15, 2009)

Kevin Timoney and Peter Lee, "Does the Alberta Tar Sands Industry Pollute? The Scientific Evidence," Open Conservation Biology Journal, Vol. 3, 65-81, 2009.