Environment Committee on March 5th, 2009

[Brian Jean, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

In essence, the 4:1 means that the four is fresh water that's being utilized for every barrel of oil produced.

[Dr. Kim Kasperski]

Yes, it's a water loss through the pores of the settled solids in the tailings ponds.

[Brian Jean, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

Now, do they recycle that water?

[Dr. Kim Kasperski]

The water that is released as those solids settle is all recycled. It goes through the process again and again. The problem with that is that the chemistry of it deteriorates over time, but that's the price you pay for the recycling.

[Brian Jean, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

They do use that water for other things, cooling towers and things like that. Is that correct?

[Dr. Kim Kasperski]

For cooling towers, heat exchangers, that sort of thing, they use river water and treat it because of the specifications for the purity of water required.

There are pilots looking at using the tailings pond recycled water for heat exchangers and cooling towers. But for that, you need water treatment plants to bring it to the specifications needed for those processes.

[Brian Jean, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

Now, what percentage of water actually touches oil and then goes back into the river?

[Dr. Kim Kasperski]

None.

[Brian Jean, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

It's zero per cent.

[Dr. Kim Kasperski]

That's what their permissions say. So there's zero discharge of process-affected water.

There's also no discharge of runoff that has touched--what's the proper term?--any land that has been disturbed. So all runoff has to be collected too.

[Brian Jean, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

And in fact, currently the oil sands plants in northern Alberta have a licence for up to 2% of the flow of the Athabasca River but, in essence, don't even use 50% of that; so they're using less than 1% of the flow of the Athabasca River at this stage?

[Dr. Kim Kasperski]

It all depends when they're developing. The initial year, they use probably the total of their licence, because they need to build up their inventory. Once they're in production, as are Syncrude and Suncor,they use less than half.

[Brian Jean, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

Now, currently the weekly flow of the Athabasca, for instance, is somewhere between 200 and 2,600 cubic metres per second. Is that correct?

[Dr. Kim Kasperski]

I don't have those numbers in my head.

[Brian Jean, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

I'm referring to a report called Environmental Challenges and Progress in Canada's Oil Sands. But it's fair to say it goes down to a 10% flow from 100% capacity during the season, depending on when it is.

[Dr. Kim Kasperski]

It varies tremendously from season to season. But regarding exactly what the percentages are, I would have to consult.

[Brian Jean, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

But it does vary tremendously?

[Dr. Kim Kasperski]

Yes, it does from winter to summer to spring.

[Brian Jean, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

And in fact 2001-02 was a peak year, almost double the other years. Is that fair to say?

[Dr. Kim Kasperski]

I don't know.

[Brian Jean, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

I would provide this report to anybody who is interested, Mr. Chair. It indicates the water flow and some of the peak years that we have had.

Now, is it also true that there are approximately 46 sites that constantly monitor air and 16 sites that constantly monitor water, or that they do seasonal monitoring on the water in the area?

[Dr. Kim Kasperski]

I think that would be Alberta Environment and probably Environment Canada that do that, so I'm not aware of the number of sites. I do know that there is air monitoring and there is water monitoring, but I can't tell you how many--

[Brian Jean, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

It's done on a constant basis, though, as far as you know. Is that fair?

[Dr. Kim Kasperski]

Some are monitored constantly.

[Brian Jean, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

Now, I fish and hunt a lot in northern Alberta, and I have for about 40 years. My family does it as well.

I wonder how you balance the fish deaths with the project. That's what was mentioned by DFO. I'd like to see a lot more northern pike gone, to be honest, because I can't throw my line out without catching a couple every time. But how do you balance that situation? For instance, in Fort McMurray and that area, the oil sands produce about 6% of the GDP. And we had 500 ducks that died recently in the pond, but we have, for instance, 6,000 birds that are killed every year by hitting the skyscrapers in Toronto, and 200,000 are killed by hitting windmills across North America.

So how do you balance that, compared to what's happening, for instance, in Toronto with the birds that are hitting skyscrapers?