Oil sands environmental damage poorly understood, possibly irreversible: secret government memo

Memo prepared for Canada's clerk of the Privy Council warns that the environmental damage caused by oil sands extraction might be irreversible and have unknown ecological and economic imact on Alberta.

A secret memo prepared for the clerk of the Privy Council in preparation for a meeting with oil companies last year seems to contradict claims by the government and by the oil industry that oil sands companies are reducing greenhouse emissions and environmental damage to the surrounding lands. Instead, the memo says, the damage already done may be irreversible, and getting worse. Three times worse, according to the memo.

Oil sands companies have said that using steam to extract bitumen from the tar sands on site reduces land disruption, energy use and emissions produced. But the secret memo states that the use of in situ steam is actually accelerating the industry’s impact on climate change, increasing emissions threefold compared to the previous practice of mining the sands.

The problem of tailings is also discussed. Referring to a report prepared by the Royal Society of Canada in which tailings and the ponds they are stored in are referred to as a “significant environmental and financial risk” to Alberta, the memo writers adds that “it is far from clear that tailings ponds can be adequately restored.”

Loss of wetlands and habitat also pose a risk to the “ecological integrity” of the oil sands region. The cumulative impacts of oil sands development “are not adequately understood,” it continues.

The subject of Canada’s oil sands will be front and centre in the European Union tomorrow when environment ministers meet in Brussels to vote on an update to the Fuel Quality Directive, a piece of legislation intended to cut EU greenhouse emissions. The law ranks fuels according to the amount of CO2 emissions associated with their production and use. Oil sands–derived fuels are ranked poorly. While Canada does not export oil from oil sands to Europe, an unfavourable vote by the EU could affect Canada’s ability to sell the oil to the United States. It could also derail ongoing negotiations for a free trade agreement between Canada and the EU.