Action Required Until Effects Understood
Sheila Muxlow, Director with the Sierra Club Prairie, had to the following to say about the Federal Government appointment of a scientific panel to study the effects of tar sands.
"Although the appointment of this panel is a quiet admission by the federal government that tar sands are adversly affecting Northern Alberta, it does not go far enough to ensure there will be no further damage. If the government seriously wishes to address the environmental and health concerns of local people on a comprehensive scale, they would call for an immediate moratorium on all new approvals and construction until the effects of existing projects are clearly understood and the harm mitigated. In the immediate, this means saying no to the Total application for the Joslyn North Mine Project open pit mine."
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Additional Information
From Total’s own admission the new open pit mine will:
- Result in one and a half million tonnes of greenhouse gas pollution each year, equivalent to putting over 270,000 cars on the road.
- Destroy seven thousand hectares of land, equivalent to the 13,000 football fields, with no realistic hope of reclamation of these areas to the same natural state they were in before.
- Result in the production of 12.5 billion litres of toxic tailings waste each year, and over the project life amounting to a volume large enough to fill over 100 sports stadiums, without any proven plan to keep these toxic materials from entering the region’s lands and waters.
- Result in the production of 2,740 tonnes of pollution each year that causes acid rain.
- Remove and pollute up to 22 billion litres of fresh water from the Athabasca River each year.
For More Info Please Contact:
- Stephen Hazell, Advisor, Sierra Club Prairie 613-724-1908, [email protected]
- Sheila Muxlow, Director Sierra Club Prairie 780-439-1160, [email protected]
- Dustin Johnson, Energy Campaigner, Sierra Club Prairie 780-439-1160, [email protected]