Canadian tar sands pollution is up to 6,300% higher than reported, study finds | Call for companies to ‘clean up their mess’ as Athabasca oil sands emissions vastly exceed industry-reported levels

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1. Article highlights:

   >The study, published on Thursday, reveals the scale of air pollution caused by the process. Using aircraft to measure pollutants, it found that there are many organic compounds being released during the process that are missed by traditional ways of measuring air pollutants – with devastating health consequences.
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   >For decades Indigenous communities in the region have complained about the health impact of toxic air caused by the oil sands operations.
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   >…
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   >The researchers examined emissions from surface mining operations as well as extraction from deeper deposits of bitumen.
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   >They noted the importance of post-extraction waste management practices, such as “tailings processing” where toxic sludge is left to dry.
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   >John Liggio, one of the research authors, said: “The study featured new measurements of total reactive organic chemicals onboard a research aircraft that reveal underestimated emissions by a factor of 1900% to over 6300% … These emission underestimates were not just observed at the more well-known surface mining operations, but also from in situ extraction facilities that represent over 50% of production with projected increases.”

   Industry has shown itself time and again that it is unable and/or unwilling to police itself accordingly, and can’t even be trusted to provide reliable data on their operations. Given this sad state of affairs, it should be clear that regulation along with significant penalties are needed if we are to get some form of compliance. Perhaps the EU’s approach of fining companies based on a percentage of worldwide revenues would be a good starting point for initial penalties.