Group: Against
 Extracting
oil tar sands in this way is not
cost effective.
 Oil tar sands are bad for the environment
and surrounding area.
 Extracting oil tar sands have harmful
effects on health.
 Using oil tar sands will not lower oil
dependency in more developed
countries.
 Global
 Local
Environment
Environment
 Transportation
environment
effects on the

Before

After

Images from chasingray.com & qewnet.ning.com
Emissions are much higher in the
extracting and refining stages than
those of conventional drilling
techniques (Dembicki).
Oil sand production raises global
emissions. Accounting for 40
million tons of CO2 emissions per
year (GreenPeace.org).
The European Unions’ support for
tar sands oil is wavering
(McLennan).



Tailing Ponds are contaminating
the environment. (H2Oil)
Immense amounts of water are used for tar sands
operations - currently 349 million cubic meters per year,
twice the amount of water used by the city of Calgary and 90 per cent of this cannot be returned to the river
afterwards.
• 220 gallon of water are needed for 55 gallons of oil.
 220
gallon of water are needed for 55
gallons of oil.
 Immense amounts of water are used for
tar sands operations - currently 349
million cubic meters per year, twice the
amount of water used by the city of
Calgary - and 90 per cent of this cannot
be returned to the river afterwards.
The extraction effect in Alberta has damaged thousands of tons of
forests, polluted water supplies, and has poured tens of thousands
of tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
 Mercury, Arsenic, lead, cadmium, and nine other toxins from the
tar sands operations are found in the Athabasca River, the fish in
the lake, and wild game.
• Many fish now show deformities and blisters, and bird and
caribou migration patterns have changed in the region.
 Health issues in people living downstream, as well as very poor air
quality for miles.
 There are already two toxic tailings dumps from Canadian oil
sands mines can already be seen from space by the naked eye.
• Suspected 45,000 gallons a day of contaminated water leak into
river via leaky dike.
• Effects U.S. environment near aquifer in the plains.

 Air quality:
• Air monitoring near the town of Fort McMurray in
Alberta has recorded excessive levels of toxic
hydrogen sulfide, nitrogen oxide, sulfur oxide and
particulate matter.
• “Tarry stench smelt from miles away” (Kunzig)
• “It stings your lungs” (Kunzig)
 Water quality:
• People living downstream from the tar sands are
reporting increased diseases. (Worldwatch)
• Fish with heavy metals (Casey)




When this mix is sent through
the pipes, it is highly
corrosive and more acidic
than normal crude oil.
16 times more likely to have a
spill than pipes that carry
regular crude oil. (Frevert)
One occurred in Michigan
and over 800,000 gallons of
oil were spilled.
2018 spills per 10,000 miles
from 2002-2008
 The
bitumen makes it extremely hard to
clean up oil spills. This is because it’s a
lot heavier than normal crude oil and
thus will become submerged
underwater, which those who are
cleaning up the spill have to remove as
well.
Pipes transporting dilbit are 16x more likely to
experience spills
 Largest spill occurred in Michigan on July 25-26,
2010

• Pipe owned by Enbridge was transporting dilbit
from Alberta
 Over 83 other spills have occurred along this aging pipeline
• 800,000+ gallons were spilled into Kalamazoo River
• Will take another year (as of April 2011) to clean up
 Bitumen is heavier than normal oil, thus making it harder to
clean up because it sinks
Cost incurred from clean up so far is over $550
million
“Kalamazoo River Oil Ppill." lsj. Lansing State Journal, 22/01/2011. Web. 13 Apr 2011.
<http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/article/99999999/news01/307270024/
kalamazoo-river-oil-spill>.
Wiliams, Rebecca. “Oil Lingers in Kalamazoo River Part One.” Michigan Radio. Michigan Radio, 12/04/2011.
Web. 13 Apr 2011. <http://news.michiganradio.org/post/oil-Lingers-kalamazoo-river-part-1>.
Nikiforuk, Andrew. “Alberta Fills Pipes With Corrosive Denial.” The Tyee. The Tyee, 21/02/2011.
http://thetyee.ca/opinion/2011/02/21/corrosivedenial/.



Web. 13 Apr 2011.
Diluted bitumen is mined from tar sands containing; clay, sand,
water and oil
Highly corrosive and more acidic than normal crude oil
Refiners have found more quartz sand the dilbit
• When heated up, this along with sulfur (which is 5-10x higher
than what is found in crude oil) “sandblast” the insides of the
pipes
Picture of the pipeline break that
occurred in the Michigan spill.
 Global
influence
 Benefits
and Disadvantages
 Transportation
 Local
cost
economy and employment
“The Natural Resources Defense
Council has called Alberta's tar sands
operations "the largest and most
destructive project on Earth“
(Schneider).
 "We're
investing $13 billion into a
pipeline system," says TransCanada's
Howard of the entire Keystone network.
"Why would we put a product into it that
would destroy it? It doesn't make any
business sense” (Koch).
 “Known
as DilBit, short for diluted
bitumen, it's thick as peanut butter and
more acidic, highly corrosive, and
abrasive” (Schneider).

“From 2002 to 2008, Alberta's pipeline system,
which has a longer record of transporting the raw
diluted bitumen, experienced 218 spills per
10,000 miles of pipeline. That was a rate of spills
from corrosion approximately 16 times greater
than the 13.8 corrosion-related spills during the
same period along the same length of pipeline in
the U.S” (Schneider).







Michigan spill July 26, 2010
“Now considered the worst oil spill in Midwest history and
caused more than $500 million in damage” (Schneider).
“The black goo originated some 2,000 miles away, in the tar
sands fields of Alberta, Canada” (Schneider).
Spill #6 in South Dakota
“The National Response Center took a report on January 5,
2011 that an equipment failure – namely, a faulty seal – along
the Keystone I pipeline caused a 10 gallon spill in Andover,
South Dakota” (La Seur).
“By our count, this is spill number 6 in one state in less than
a year of operation on the “safest pipeline ever built,” as
TransCanada loves to tell us” (La Seur).
Owned
by Keystone XL
It will run 1700 miles from Alberta to the refinery
in Texas and will open in 2013
Underground
Cut through Nebraska
• Problems/Issue
 Cuts through Nebraska Sand Hills which has porous,
fine sands and will cross over the Ogallala Aquifer
If a spill happens over the aquifer, it will pollute
water that is supplied to 2,000,000+ people
Frevert, Malinda. “New Tar Sands Oil Products Increase Likelihood of Spills." Bold Nebraska. Bold Nebraska, 16/02/2011.
Web. 13 apr 2011. <http://www.boldnebraska.org/
pipeline-problems>.
"No to a New Tar Sands Pipeline." New York Times. New York Times, 02/04/2011. Web. 13 Apr
2011.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/03/opinion/03sun1.html.
 Giant
electric shovels are mining bitumen
24/7 – 356
 Each loader costs $5 million
 The teeth wear down every couple of days
and must be repaired
 Truck tires must be replaced every 6
months
 The dump trucks hauling the moved soil
burn 50,000 gallons of diesel per hour
• For 2- 12 hour shifts, that is 1,200,000 gallon per day.
Kunzig, National Geographic
 Equipment
replacement and repair on a
regular basis.

Uses twice the volume to produce buy University of
Calgary physicist, David Keith said it contains 5x more
energy (Kunzig).
 200,000
Bitumen
tons of water is heated to clean the
• Energy used to heat the water comes from burning
natural gas. “We are using the cleanest source of
energy to produce the dirtiest,” critics said (Kunzig).
Kunzig, National Geographic
Modules are HUGE
 “Imperial Oil has stated
it will cover the costs of
the trucking project,
which will entail
hundreds of changes to
the route before the
massive loads could pass
through the area
concerned without
causing damage.”
(Jamail)

 "Members
of the Nez Perce tribe and
individuals were kept in the dark
regarding the reason behind expanding
the highway, but many now feel that the
expansion was driven through in
preparation for this Corridor.” (Jamail)
 Unfeasible
to rebuild all roads
 Use alternative routes
 Chip and seal approx. $30, 000/mile
(Glaeser)
Canadian Energy Research Institute:
“We anticipate significant levels of investment and production from the oil
sands industry. Under our central scenario or base case, we see
investment of just over $100 billion through 2020, resulting in production
of crude bitumen and SCO outputs valued at approximately $531 billion.”
“Oil sands activities will lead to significant economic impacts not only in
Alberta but also in other parts of Canada and abroad. Based on our
central scenario, the development and production activities lead to a total
increase in GDP of some $885 billion allocated as follows:
Canada: $789 billion (89%)
Alberta: $634 billion (72%)
Ontario: $102 billion (11%)
Quebec: $8 billion (1%)
Other provinces & territories: $45 billion (5%)
Other Countries: $96 billion (11%)”
“As Prices Surge, Oil Giants Turn Sludge Into Gold” by Russell Gold, Wall
Street Journal
“It costs about $25 a barrel to produce crude from Canada's oil sands. By
comparison, it can cost as little as about $5 a barrel to produce crude in
the Middle East and $15 in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico.”
•465, 000
New jobs were created
in the past decade.
•Unemployment
rate was the
lowest Canada has seen at 3.4%
(environment.alberta.ca)
•Employment
Impact
Distribution
•BUT, Between
the years 2004
and 2008 there was years of
frenzied tar sand activity.
•They
lost 322,000
Manufacturing jobs
(albertasurtacerights.com)
 With
only a high school degree, workers
can make $100,000 per year.
 Average age is 31
 Most workers want to make fast money
then take it somewhere else. Most
workers have no intention of settling in
the area.
 Subject to the boom-and-bust cycle
depending on market collapse and
increase.






No effort put forth to build up a community
Physician to resident ratio 4,500:1 World Health Organization
recommends 600:1 (Lydersen)
10-12 hour shifts with no day off
Work place injuries are high and death is common
• In 2007 154 people were killed on the job and 34,000 injured
(Lydersen)
Workers sleep in overcrowded, unsanitary, and sometimes violent
camp houses.
Even with such high wages, most live below the poverty line
because of inflation.
• A trailer costs more than $300,000 and houses are more than
$600,000 (Lydersen)


Crime rates jumped 23% from 2004-2005
Lethbridge has half the crime rate as Ft. McMurray (oil
sands truth)
• Ft. McMurray= 16.82 per 1000 under 15 years old use drugs
• Lethbridge= 2.64
• Calgary=2.41
Drug abuse and alcoholism has spiked in these
mining areas
 This has led to the
highest level of spousal
abuse in Canada.

•An increased level of suicide
and self-injury have occurred
in these areas.
"But it can be a question of values and what
we spend our money on." Paul Torcellini,
engineer NREL
 Alternative
of total use
energy accounts for only 6%
 Conventional
Solar= $0.20
 Wind= $0.04

electric=$0.08/ killowatt hr
(Natgeo)
 Thin
film on metal roofing materials
create solar energy
 Off Shore Wind farms
 Ground Thermal heating with geothermal
generators
(National Geographic)
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UILY4
wRg2w8.


Kunzig, Robert. “Canadian Oil Boom: Scraping Bottom.” National Geographic.
March 2009. <http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2009/03/canadian-oilsands/kunzig-text/1>
Lydersen, Kari. “Tar Sands: Big Money, but at what Cost?” In These Times. Sat.
Sept. 5, 2009.
<http://www.inthesetimes.com/working/entry/4852/tar_sands_big_money_b
ut_at_what_cost/>

Photo by David Boily. AFP, Getty Images. June 2007

Sexton, Matt. “Tar Sands: A Brief Overview.” Found April 26, 2011
http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/usa.html

“Canada’s Tar Sands: Muck and Brass.” The Economist. Jan. 20, 2011


Tetley, Deborah. “Sex, Drugs, and Alcohol Stalk the Streets of Fort McMurray.”
Oil Sands Truth. Oct. 22, 2005. http://oilsandstruth.org/sex-drugs-and-alcoholstalk-streets-fort-mcmurray
Walker, Cameron. “The Future of Alternative Energy.” National Geographic.
Oct 28, 2004.
<http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/10/1028_041028_alternativ
e_energy.html>




Koch, Wendy. “Proposed U.S.-Canada Oil Pipeline Fuels Debate.” USA Today. 22 March,
2011. <http://content.usatoday.com/communities/greenhouse/post/2011/03/us-canadatar-sands-pipeline-fuels-debate/1>.
La Seur, Carrie. “Another Day, Another Keystone Pipeline Spill.” World Press. 15 January,
2011. <http://tarsandspipelines.wordpress.com/2011/01/15/another-day-anotherkeystone-pipeline-spill/>.
Lydersen, Kari. “Michigan Oil Spill Increases Concern Over Tar Sands Pipelines.
OnEarth. 13 August, 2010. <http://www.onearth.org/article/michigan-oil-spill-tar-sandsconcerns>.
Schneider, Keith. “Tar Sands Pipeline Poses Health Risks, Campaigners Claim.”
Guardian.co.uk. 17 February, 2011.
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/feb/17/tar-sands-pipeline-pollution>.
Citations for Global Environment
Issues
Dembicki, Geoff. "New oil sands study adds to emissions debate." The Hook. The
Tyee, 21 09 2010. Web. 17 Apr 2011.
http://thetyee.ca/Blogs/TheHook/Environment/2010/09/21/emissions-debate-CERA/>.
(tons of CO2 and percentages source)
McLennan, William. "Europe moves to ban imports of tar sands oil from
Canada." Ecologist 29 MAR 2011: n. page. Web. 17 Apr 2011.
<http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/829665/europe_moves_to_ban_imports_of
_tar_sands_oil_from_canada.html>.
Greenpeace, . "Water Depletion." Greenpeace Canada. Greenpeace, 25 OCT 2007.
Web. 17 Apr 2011.
<http://www.greenpeace.org/canada/en/campaigns/tarsands/archive/threats/waterdepletion/>.
Zhang, Chi-Chi. "Canadian firm to probe Utah tar sands." AP 13 APR 2011: n. page.
Web. 17 Apr 2011. <http://oilsandstruth.org/canadian-firm-probe-utah-tar-sands>.



Kunzig, Robert. “Canadian Oil Boom: Scraping Bottom.”
National Geographic. March 2009.
<http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2009/03/canadia
n-oil-sands/kunzig-text/1>
Casey, Tina. "Boycott of Petroleum Products from
Alberta Tar Sands Gathers Steam." Clean Technica. N.p.,
21 Aug 2010. Web. 26 Apr 2011.
<http://cleantechnica.com/2010/08/31/boycott-ofpetroleum-products-from-alberta-tar-sands-gatherssteam/>.
"Oil Sands: The Cost's of Alberta's "Black Gold"."
Worldwatch. N.p., 2011. Web. 25 Apr 2011.
<http://www.worldwatch.org/node/4222>.
Frevert, Malinda. “New Tar Sands Oil Products Increase Likelihood of Spills." Bold
Nebraska. Bold
Nebraska, 16/02/2011. Web. 13 apr 2011.
<http://www.boldnebraska.org/
pipeline-problems>.
“Kalamazoo River Oil Ppill." lsj. Lansing State Journal, 22/01/2011. Web. 13 Apr 2011.
<http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/article/99999999/news01/307270024/
kalamazoo-river-oil-spill>.
Nikiforuk, Andrew. “Alberta Fills Pipes With Corrosive Denial.” The Tyee. The Tyee,
21/02/2011.
Web. 13 Apr 2011.
<http://thetyee.ca/opinion/2011/02/21/corrosivedenial/>.
"No to a New Tar Sands Pipeline." New York Times. New York Times, 02/04/2011. Web.
13 Apr 2011. <http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/03/opinion/03sun1.html>.
Wiliams, Rebecca. “Oil Lingers in Kalamazoo River Part One.” Michigan Radio.
Michigan Radio, 12/04/2011. Web. 13 Apr 2011.
<http://news.michiganradio.org/post/oil-Lingers-kalamazoo-river-part-1>.
Frevert, Malinda. “New Tar Sands Oil Products Increase Likelihood of Spills." Bold
Nebraska. Bold
Nebraska, 16/02/2011. Web. 13 apr 2011.
<http://www.boldnebraska.org/
pipeline-problems>.
“Kalamazoo River Oil Ppill." lsj. Lansing State Journal, 22/01/2011. Web. 13 Apr 2011.
<http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/article/99999999/news01/307270024/
kalamazoo-river-oil-spill>.
Nikiforuk, Andrew. “Alberta Fills Pipes With Corrosive Denial.” The Tyee. The Tyee,
21/02/2011.
Web. 13 Apr 2011.
<http://thetyee.ca/opinion/2011/02/21/corrosivedenial/>.
"No to a New Tar Sands Pipeline." New York Times. New York Times, 02/04/2011. Web.
13 Apr 2011. <http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/03/opinion/03sun1.html>.
Wiliams, Rebecca. “Oil Lingers in Kalamazoo River Part One.” Michigan Radio.
Michigan Radio, 12/04/2011. Web. 13 Apr 2011.
<http://news.michiganradio.org/post/oil-Lingers-kalamazoo-river-part-1>.
 Oil
Sands: The costs of Alberta's "Black
Gold". Eye on Earth, 2011. Web. 12 Apr.
2011.
http://www.worldwatch.org/node/4222.
 Boycott of Petroleum Products from
Alberta Tar Sands Gathers Steam. N.p.,
n.d. Web. 13 Apr. 2011.
http://cleantechnica.com/2010/08/31/bo
ycott-of-petroleum-products-fromalberta-tar-sands-gathers-steam/