Oilsands polluting Athabasca river: study
Posted Aug 30, 2010 12:52 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A new study shows that oilsands facilities are releasing heavy metals into the air and water in northern Alberta.
The study found that metals such as lead and mercury are already above levels considered hazardous to fish.
The Alberta government has long held that those substances occur naturally in the environment, and are released from outcrops of oilsands deposits.
But the study by a University of Alberta ecologist rules that conclusion out, and takes a hard swing at the province’s environmental monitoring program.
Ecologist David Schindler says seven of the 13 pollutants recorded downstream of oilsands operations exceed Canada’s guidelines for the protection of aquatic life.
