Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Good afternoon, committee members. Thank you for inviting me.
I'm Aliénor Rougeot and I'm with Environmental Defence Canada.
I'll be discussing how oil sands mining contributes to groundwater contamination and how this relates to broader concerns about toxic tailings ponds in the oil sands.
Today actually marks the first anniversary of the large spill from Imperial Oil's Kearl mine, which revealed, as you'll remember, a separate toxic leak that had been secretly going on for over nine months. There was a lot of outrage when that spill happened, including from this committee. Not a lot has happened since. No charges have been laid under provincial or federal environmental protection laws. The tailings are still growing in volume and, as I will explain today, the tailings are still seeping toxic waste on an ongoing basis. In many ways, the Imperial Oil spill and leak were only the tip of the iceberg. The tar sands tailings ponds now contain 1.4 trillion litres of toxic waste and cover an area 2.6 times the size of the city of Vancouver.
In 2020, the Commission for Environmental Cooperation, which is an international watchdog created under the North American Free Trade Agreement, investigated the issue of leaking tar sands tailings. Their experts surveyed all publicly available peer-reviewed studies and concluded that oil sands process water, i.e., tailings, is seeping into the groundwater around tailings ponds. Industry data from major players like Suncor and Syncrude confirms these findings, showing consistent evidence of tailings seepage into groundwater, particularly close to surface water sources and tributaries to the Athabasca River.
This is highly toxic waste we are talking about. It's waste that contains naphthenic acids and heavy metals, which are respectively linked to a disruption of the reproductive system in animals, and cancer and damage to the function of the brain, lungs, kidneys, liver, blood composition and other important organs in both animals and humans. The full extent of the dangers presented by the content of the tailings on human health remains understudied, which I will point out is one of the major grievances of the communities that are impacted, most of which are indigenous communities.
Seepage from the tailings is not an accident. It's in the design. The outer walls of the oil sands tailings ponds are permeable. There are systems that are designed to collect the seepage. Yet, evidence shows that there is a noticeable movement of fluids that avoids these collection systems. As you know—it's common sense—groundwater doesn't stay in the ground. In the case of the Athabasca region, groundwater has a significant impact on the Athabasca River's quality.
Having toxic waste make its way into groundwater and surface water is a concern, of course, for fish, but also for the entire ecosystem that relies on these water bodies, especially for the indigenous nations that sustain themselves off this territory.
It is especially concerning that local communities are exposed to these heavy metals and toxic substances from tailings ponds through multiple pathways: through the water they drink, through the game and food that they harvest off the territory, and through the air. As a reminder, two weeks ago, a study found that air pollutants from the oil sands could be 20 to 64 times higher than previously reported.
All this information shouldn't be a surprise to many of you. Actually, in 2010, members of the then opposition sitting on the ENVI committee published a scathing report about the government's track record on tailings. It reads, “the story of the oil sands' relationship to water is very much a tale of denial by interested parties...and of long-standing abdication of federal leadership in an area...that is rightfully Ottawa's”.
That was 14 years ago. The federal government still has the power to address this today. Under Canada's Fisheries Act, no one is allowed to deposit a substance harmful to fish anywhere where fish may come in contact with it. Yet, no company to this day has been charged for leaking tailings. The previously mentioned Commission for Environmental Cooperation found that Canada was failing to enforce its own Fisheries Act. That, again, was several years ago.
I urge this committee to break free from the pattern of past governments and do more than shine a temporary spotlight on this issue. I hope that you will consider sustained, meaningful actions. I hope that in our conversations we can explore together what these actions may be.
Thank you for your attention.