Monitoring on the Mind

With the spate of news & reports on environmental monitoring (or the lack thereof) in the oilsands region, monitoring is on the mind of a couple of AEN members.

Laura Bowman of the Environmental Law Centre posts on the need for an independent environmental monitoring agency:

…a clear, unambiguous commitment to better monitoring resources and stronger federal and provincial oversight at the approvals stage is still glaringly absent. What the oilsands really need is a well-resourced agency with the expertise and independence to be a bold regulator. 

Pembina's Terra Simieritsch writes on the importance of water quality monitoring, and asks some questions of the federal & provincial governments:

Will limits be set and will laws be enforced? And ultimately, if the data points to unacceptable changes in the Athabasca River, what are the federal and provincial governments prepared to do?