OIL SANDS: Environmental improvement report tabled

OTTAWA – The Council of Canadian Academies (www.ScienceAdvice.ca) has released a new report on mitigating the environmental impact of Alberta's oil sands. The report says short to medium term technologies can reduce the footprint on a per barrel basis. But creating lasting, positive improvement is going to be a long term endeavour.

The Council's expert panel looked at the impacts of oil sands development on air, water and soil. The identified greenhouse gas emissions and tailings ponds as being the most serious. GHG emissions could double to 156 megatonnes by 2025. Moreover, the volume of tailings continues to accumulate. The panel noted that large tailings ponds are both a legacy problem from past production and a future reclamation challenge.

"Working now to accelerate the pace of technological development is central to meeting the long term challenge," said Eric Newell, co-chair of the panel. "If our current long-term R&D projects prove successful, resulting technologies could reduce GHG emissions per barrel below that of U.S. average crude oil by 2030."

The report's other findings are worth noting:

• A number of technologies identified in the report can help reduce the environmental footprint in all its dimensions in the short term if widely adopted; these are important but insufficient to achieve absolute reductions.
• An opportunity exists to accelerate the pace of technology development, creating a path to long-term and absolute reductions in the overall environmental footprint of the oil sands. This requires strong leadership, continued investment, and risk-taking by all.
• Opportunities to reduce GHG emissions lie primarily with in situ operations, a major source for emissions, which could rise by 300% by 2030 under 2014 production forecasts.
• There is no single "silver bullet" technology that can significantly reduce the volume of tailings and increase their consolidation for reclamation. However, a range of technologies used together may provide options for timely reclamation.
• Impediments to the accelerated adoption of the most promising technologies relate to resources used, business decisions, and government policies.

The report was prepared at the request of Natural Resources Canada. The report is intended to provide a foundation for the federal government's policy and decision makers.

Click here to download either the Council's full report or an executive summary.