Tarsands
Tar sands are the dirtiest and most destructive fossil fuels.
- Tar sands are particles of sand, clay, a type of heavy oil called bitumen, and water.
- Unlike conventional oil, tar sands are solid, not liquid. They’re extracted through an open-pit mining process rather than a drilling process. In order to be transported via pipeline, they must be diluted with other petroleum products.
- Tar sands are mixed with so many other chemicals that the end result is less efficient than crude oil and produces 37% more carbon emissions
- The proposed Line 3 replacement would emit 170bn kilograms of carbon dioxide each year, which is equal to 50 coal plants.
- A recent report by the National Academy of Sciences has shown that tar sands behave completely differently than conventional oil when spilled into waterways and wetlands, and we still don’t know how to effectively clean them up.
Free prior & informed consent
While they will always claim otherwise, pipeline companies and the crown have consistently failed to meaningfully consult with the first nations communities their projects run through and threaten the lives & culture of. The government and industries often only associate or negotiate with band councils, which are colonial arms of government that often don’t fully represent the interests of Indigenous people.
In unceded territories, band council has no control or final say over use or development of the territory – these powers typically remain with hereditary leadership which corporations and courts consistently refuse to acknowledge.
Water
It takes between 2-10 barrels of fresh water to extract & refine just 1 barrel of tarsands oil. Tarsands operations draw over 11,730L per second from the athabasca watershed. Water useds in operations is permanently contaminated and cannot be reused or recycled. the poisoned water is then stored in tailings ponds.
Tailings ponds in alberta, comprised of unrecoverable toxic waste water, can be seen from space. Tailings seepage from ponds are unknown, but low end estimates about 11 million litres per day.
