By Shawn from Airdrie, Canada – Ominica Arm, Williston Lake, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=31605690
Coal mining, washing and burning all release toxic chemicals and heavy metals into the environment, by the truckload. For every tonne of coal mined, between 1 and 2.5 cubic meters of groundwater is made unusable .
Even after coal mines are closed, they continue to be a source of acidic runoff, often tainted with toxic heavy metals like cadmium and cobalt. The acidity kills fish and other wildlife, and heavy metals from runoff accumulate in the bodies of animals that drink the water.
In addition, hazardous coal ash can coat crops in toxic chemicals, leach into groundwater and streams, and be transported hundreds of kilometers by strong winds. At some sites, wastewater from coal-fired power plants remains poorly treated, pouring a dangerous mix of carcinogens into the environment.
Cardero Resources Corp was establishing a coal mine in northeastern BC. The had a deal with Ridley Terminals for the shipment of metallurgical coal from the Carbon Creek project in the Peace River Coal Field.
Since coal mining uses a lot of water they were tapping into the Williston Lake Reservoir. It’s 251-km long and 155-km wide, making it the largest reservoir in British Columbia.
They ran into financial trouble in 2015. According to the Financial Post the prices were in the dumps “and investors have no interest in financing projects that are poised to lose money (or are already losing it).
“So it’s not a huge surprise that Desjardins Securities is kicking these stocks to the curb. Analyst Jackie Przybylowski has dropped coverage of Adriana Resources Inc., Cardero Resources Corp., Colonial Coal International Corp., Corsa Coal Corp. and New Millennium Iron Corp.”
From the project description on their executive summary that was submitted to the government, they make no secret the environmental damage their mine would cause. On page 27, section 4.1, they have itemized the damage they would do. In section 5.3, on page 30, they list how the Indigenous will be affected as well.
It could be pointed out that Cardero Resources operated in British Coulumbia. In fact, it appears that in Alberta, a federal assessment will need to be completed. What’s the chance it will be streamlined like it was in British Columbia?
What’s the chance we will have similar environmental problems?
This 25 passenger crew bus is one of the vehicles powered by a hydrogen fuel cell used at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in a demonstration of hydrogen as an alternative fuel source. (U.S. Air Force photo by J. Brian Garmon)
Canada has the potential to become a top hydrogen exporter and shake off a reputation of global warming offender. That this vision is beginning to gain traction in the heart of the country’s oil patch goes to show how the world’s energy transition is taking centre stage with growing pressure from consumers and investors — even if it’s still unclear how long it will take until cleaner sources will have enough scale to displace crude and other fossil fuels.
“If we turn our natural gas into hydrogen, then it is now part of the long-term future for energy,” said Jackie Forrest, executive director of Calgary-based ARC Energy Research Institute. “There is no need to decline our production because we found a new product that has growing demand.”
For oilsands producers, it’s more about long-term survival than saving the planet. If they use hydrogen to cut emissions, it could ensure they continue to have a market for their crude and funding from environmentally minded investors. Canadian Natural Resources Inc., Cenovus Energy Inc. and MEG Energy Inc. all have vowed to achieve net zero emissions from their operations. For Alberta, a hydrogen industry would buttress the province against wild crude price swings like the current pandemic-driven market crash, as well as the prospect of declining petroleum consumption.
“Hydrogen could represent a lifeline to Alberta’s oil and gas industry,” said Simon Dyer, deputy executive director of the Pembina Institute, an environmental think tank. “Alberta has a lot of the building blocks in place to be able to compete in this space and develop a thriving hydrogen economy.”
Hydrogen Generated From What?
In an ideal world the answer would be from surplus electricity generated from renewable sources and used to electrolyse water to create hydrogen and oxygen with zero emissions. This “green” hydrogen could provide energy for industrial processes, for power generation (largely as a back-up to renewables when the wind is not blowing or the sun not shining) and even for residential and commercial use. Unfortunately, although this outcome would be perfect in theory, the practical reality is that it is highly unlikely to provide sufficient energy by 2050 to be a viable solution on its own.
This is the key argument discussed by Ralf Dickel in this paper on Germany’s hydrogen strategy, which he uses as an excellent case study of the potential future role of hydrogen more broadly. He argues that although the production and consumption of green hydrogen should certainly be a long-term goal, there must be a role for “blue” hydrogen (produced by the reforming of methane into hydrogen plus CO2) as an enabler of a future hydrogen economy. The technology is already available, CO2 storage is becoming more viable and the gradual expansion of hydrogen use can allow new infrastructure to be built that can ultimately be used to enable the development of a green hydrogen business. However, without this interim step the aspirations for hydrogen could falter due to unrealistic expectations based on political, rather than commercial and technical, reality.
Ralf Dickel explores the logic behind this debate in a clear and logical fashion in this paper, and we would recommend it to policy-makers, energy companies and interested observers of the European energy market as a thorough and well-argued analysis of the key issues which need to be addressed if hydrogen is to play a major role in the decarbonisation of the European energy economy.
Home of the oil sands eyes cleaner future as hydrogen superpower
Kevin Orland, Bloomberg News, reports the idea of producing cleaner-burning hydrogen to rid the world of fossil fuels is gaining traction in the unlikeliest of places: Alberta, home of the infamously dirty oil sands.
One Calgary-based startup says it has found a way to avoid emissions altogether and produce the gas at a fraction of current costs. Proton Technologies has patented a method of igniting an oil well and using a palladium alloy filter in the well bore that traps the carbon emissions in place while allowing pure hydrogen to flow to the surface.
That would solve one of the problems with hydrogen: While the fuel burns cleanly, current production generates sizable pollution. To supply about 70 million metric tons in a year, the world’s hydrogen producers send 830 tons of CO2 into the atmosphere, roughly the annual emissions of the U.K. and Indonesia combined, according to a 2019 report from the International Energy Agency.
Canada already can produce the cheapest hydrogen in the world after Russia, according to a 2018 study from the Asia-Pacific Energy Research Centre that points to the two countries as potential major exporters.
Alstom’s hydrogen train Coradia iLint completes successful tests in the Netherlands
The world’s first hydrogen fuel cell passenger train takes its first steps abroad after commercial success in Germany
6 March 2020 – Alstom has performed ten days of tests of the Coradia iLint hydrogen fuel cell train on the 65 kilometres of line between Groningen and Leeuwarden in the north of the Netherlands. The tests follow 18 successful months of passenger service on the Buxtehude–Bremervörde–Bremerhaven–Cuxhaven line in Germany, where total of 41 Coradia iLint have already been ordered. The latest tests make the Netherlands the second country in Europe where the train has proven itself a unique emissions-free solution for non-electrified lines.
Last October, Alstom and the Province of Groningen, local operator Arriva, the Dutch railway infrastructure manager ProRail and the energy company Engie signed a pilot project agreement to test the Coradia iLint, the world’s first passenger train powered by hydrogen fuel cells, in the Netherlands. DEKRA, an independent testing inspection and certification company, has been appointed test leader. This series of tests is being performed at night at up to 140 km/h without passengers. For the purpose of the tests, a mobile filling station has been erected by Engie for refuelling the Coradia iLint with completely green – sustainably produced – hydrogen.
On the evening of Saturday July 25, the MV (Merchant Vessel) Wakashio grounded on coral reefs in the south-east of the Indian Ocean tropical island of Mauritius. The ship, a Japanese-owned but Panama-registered bulk carrier designed to transport unpackaged goods such as coal or grain, was empty of cargo but had an estimated 200 tons of diesel and 3,800 tons of heavy fuel oil onboard. The ship sat for over a week before cracks emerged in its hull.
Fuel oil began to leak into the expansive turquoise blue lagoon outside the coastal village of Mahébourg. Striking satellite images show the resulting oil spill weaving a black slick between the mainland at Pointe D’Esny and the flat round island of Ile-aux-Aigrettes. The impacts seen closer up are gruesome. On August 7, nearly two weeks after the shipwreck, the government declared the incident a national emergency.
With at least 1,000 tons of fuel oil estimated to have already emptied into the lagoon, two ships moved alongside to transfer off remaining fuel in a race against time as the vessel threatened to shear into two.
I’m a Mauritian living in the UK and visit my dad’s house in Mahébourg once or twice a year. The coastline affected is the waterfront at the end of our street and the beaches where we swim and picnic. It feels scary and strange to be writing this from 10,000km away but inspiring to see local people taking action and coming together.
What’s under threat?
Spills like this harm marine life because the chemicals that make up oil are toxic to plants and animals, including mangrove forests and the corals that build reefs. While the black and sticky heavy oils used to fuel ships are less toxic than light oils like diesel or petroleum, they persist longer and smother life in the sea and on the coasts. Ecological effects ripple across interconnected marine and land ecosystems.
It’s very difficult to predict how severe the impacts will be in Mauritius – and how quickly or well the environment might recover – from even detailed analyses of case studies and ecology of mangroves and coral reefs. There are just too many variables, including the complexity of the ecosystems, what mix of oil has been spilled, and how clean up is attempted, which can have negative environmental impacts too.
The 22 hectares of mangrove that make up the Pointe D’Esny Wetlands (roughly the area of 22 soccer pitches) are designated as a Ramsar site, a protected area for internationally important wetlands. The mangroves are home to species and habitats of conservation importance and to nurseries of fish supporting coastal fisheries.
Just along the coastal road to the south is Blue Bay Marine Park, another Ramsar site, with 353 hectares of coral reefs, seagrass meadows, and more mangroves. It is home to turtles, 72 species of fish, and an exceptional coral diversity of 38 species from 15 families.
Ile-aux-Aigrettes, opposite Pointe D’Esny, has the last remaining coastal ebony forest in Mauritius and is an island I spent three months living on as a volunteer in my youth. The coastal ebony species is one of 11 remaining endemic ebony species of Mauritius, a twelfth is believed extinct. This 27-hectare island nature reserve is named for the egrets, various long-legged and typically white-feathered species of the heron family that fish these coasts.
Successful conservation efforts have restored numbers of the Pink Pigeon, one of the rarest birds in the world in 1990, on Ile-aux-Aigrettes. It was brought to the island by the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation, the conservation charity that has painstakingly restored its ecosystems. Conservationists have been helped by the reintroduction of free-roaming giant tortoises who act as ecological engineers in the restoration of the various coastal islands.
Local fishermen depend on the now oil-polluted lagoon for their livelihoods and local people depend on it for most of the fish they eat. Many local small businesses, often family run, such as guest houses, tour guides, eateries and tourist shops are geared towards holidaymakers attracted by the beautiful sea, beaches and nature that Mauritians enjoy every day.
And it seems the oil spill could eventually devastate most of the east coast of Mauritius. This includes stretches further north that host a large share of luxury coastal hotels. The coronavirus has closed international tourism since March. It would have been a slow recovery even without the environmental degradation.
Leaking oil. Office of the Reunion Region in Mauritius/EPA handout
Volunteer efforts
The MV Wakashio is wrecked on almost the same spot where a British steel-hulled sailing vessel, the Dalblair, sank carrying coals to Mauritius in 1902. The jagged remains of its decaying hull protrude to this day as a landmark above the waves, which ironically in daylight would have been a sobering warning.
After the oil spill, the usual sights of families strolling by the sea were quickly replaced by volunteers working hard in a grassroots effort to protect their coast. Packing straw from the fields of tall swaying sugar cane into homemade floating booms, self-organised groups of local people and activists deployed these along kilometres of coast with visibly evident success, halting expansion of the slick and soaking up oil.
The Mauritian government has told volunteers to stop and leave any efforts to officials. But people and local organisations are carrying on their making and deploying booms, which is the only apparent action dealing with the oil floating on the sea. It seems better to risk a fine or arrest than to stop. And local sentiment seems to be unanimously negative about the government’s slow response and lack of action targeting the slick.
Why the mistrust? Just four years ago on June 17 2016 another bulk carrier, the MV Benita, ran aground in Grand Port just 7km along the coast to the south. I was in Mauritius when this happened and looked out at the MV Benita (which had a fifth the cargo capacity of MV Wakashio) from the beach at Blue Bay.
There had reportedly been a fight on board and the ship had lost power, before drifting to Mauritius – without coming to the attention of the national coastguard. How the ship could simply crash into Mauritius without the authorities knowing bewildered people locally.
The vessel was there for five weeks before it was finally refloated, thankfully the oil having been taken off without major spillage or tank rupture. It was being towed to be scrapped in India when it then sank 90km offshore from Mauritius.
Satellite evidence suggests in July 2020 the MV Wakashio had been on a clear direct collision course with Mauritius for several days and hit the reefs at Pointe D’Esny with ocean cruising speed maintained, meaning the government was again likely taken by surprise. The same evidence suggests it took six days for the government to even send out a tug to try to refloat the ship.
Governance failures in shipping
The recent Beirut tragedy – a deadly explosion of ammonium nitrate in long-term port storage – and now this Mauritius incident raise questions about governance and security in international shipping. Ships can be registered (flagged) in any country of choice, meaning owners are able to find jurisdictions with least regulations. As a Forbes article suggested: “It is unclear how effective the regulators of the flagged nations were in ensuring the safety of the vessel, port, crew and locations through which the vessel travelled.”
This will need to be investigated.
Mauritius is perhaps best known for the flightless bird, the dodo, that has become emblematic of the island and of extinction. The tragic case of the dodo became a lesson for the environmentally conscious who developed the modern conservation movement. If the grounding of MV Wakashio and its destruction of environment and livelihoods can become a lesson for the global leaders who can bring about change, maybe we can at last have international shipping fit for the modern world.
Nobody would be surprised if you uttered a “Holy Hell!!” At least not today. BP Oil’s announcement is an important signal to the rest of the fossil industry that things cannot move forward without some pain and change. BP will reduce its oil and gas production and increase low-carbon spending to $5 billion per year by 2030. The $5-billion annual renewables commitment is up from $500 million in 2019, which was only a pittance to appease governments and show that they were trying really hard to change their ways. No one bought it, but the governments didn’t care.
It would seem that this could be considered the “holy” part of the utterance. It’s expected a lot of people will just smile to themselves. Everyone knows that fossil fuel companies have been losing a lot of money since the oil war started between Russia and Saudi Arabia. Coupled with the decreasing demand from a pandemic, with no guarantee that a second wave isn’t coming, finances, investors, output credit and allowances must be carefully considered to keep afloat. Many haven’t been so lucky.
It might be difficult to believe that a fossil fuel company cares about global warming. They were aware of what their products would do to the environment long before it was ever made mainstream. Conspiring with government officials, who recognized the increasing value of tax revenue, very little was ever discussed, let alone admitted.
While some of these companies are changing their stripes and singing a different tune, governments are realizing that they too, have to come to terms with decreasing revenue. Many of them could easily be compared to a spoiled child that wants their mother’s constant attention. If it takes throwing a fit, they’re ready to get down on the floor and pound their fists and feet.
This brings us to the “Hell” part of the utterance. What do the Alberta government and federal government think they are doing by even considering firing up the coal mines? What do they think they’re doing throwing money at rich foreign companies that just laugh and accept it? And how the hell can they justify a 25% decrease in monitoring the oil sands, when it is one of the most dangerous, toxic, environmental disasters that has been allowed to continue in Canada unchecked.
The Environmental Minister Johnathon Wilkinson is being raked over the coals (pun intended) . So far, he hasn’t produced any credible excuse. Have the Liberals given free rein to Alberta to jump-start the economy at all costs? It isn’t any secret that we don’t have any plans to live up to the Paris Agreement set in 2016. The climate action tracker says:
Outside Peace River
“Canada continues with the incremental implementation of its Pan-Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate, its overarching strategy for reducing emissions, adopted in 2016; often in the face of provincial pushback. The Government is implementing its coal-fired power plant phase-out, but it clearly needs to take more climate action, as emissions are projected to still be above 1990 levels beyond 2030, far from its Paris Agreement target and nowhere near a 1.5˚C-compatible pathway.”
According to the CBC news, they claim “The deal says no fieldwork is to be done on the main branch of the Athabasca River. That means the program won’t fund monitoring downstream of the oilsands even as the province considers proposals to allow the water from oilsands tailings ponds to be released into the river.”
Some of those chemicals are carcinogenic, and some damage the liver, kidneys and central nervous system. There are also cases of individuals suffering acute and chronic health effects while living near fracking operations – including nausea, rashes, dizziness, headaches and nose bleeds. Frankly, the people living near the wastewater holding ponds, are in serious danger. It has never been proven that any filtering system or reverse osmosis will remove all of the danger. Here’s what can happen if the release is not monitored:
Membrane damage – high salt passage and increased flux.
High salt passage.
High bacterial / fungal counts in water samples. Biofouling of membranes – high pressure difference.
Colloidal and bacterial fouling of micron filters and membranes.
Scale formation – CaCO3 only.
High microbiological loading, biofilm, severe cartridge filter fouling.
Fouling / scaling of membranes.
Mr. Wilkinson tried to deny the funding was being cut on Twitter yesterday. He said, “There is no Canada-Alberta Agreement to reduce oil sands monitoring. The decrease in this year’s spending reflects the loss of the spring/summer field season due to COVID-19. This was decided upon by the consensus of a 12 person body, including 6 Indigenous and 1 federal rep.” Unfortunately this would appear to be something the Liberals can’t weasel out of. More responses were supplied by Energy Mix. They referred to it as a “Twitter Storm.”
According to the Narwhal, “One single tailings pond, located at a Syncrude operation, is contained by the largest dam in the world, holding 540,000,000 cubic meters of material.
Driving Into Athabaska
Tailings ponds in the oilsands are unlined and there have been documented cases of contamination leaking from these pits into the Athabasca River. NAFTA even conducted an investigation into the threat tailings ponds pose to the environment.”
In another article NAFTA did an investigation into tailing ponds leaking. They said, “It’s been suspected for ages that these ponds have been seeping chemicals into nearby water systems — chemicals such as benzene, ammonia, cyanide and arsenic.”
Can you imagine how much worse this will get if it isn’t being monitored?
The Crowsnest Pass is rich in history and unsurpassed beauty, with a mountain full of activities available from fly-fishing to skiing in the winter. There’s horseback riding, swimming, guided tours of historical landmarks and even challenging activities like mountain bike riding. You can spend the afternoon on a scenic golf course, or explore trails on off-highway vehicles. There’s always lots to do.
One certainly doesn’t want to miss The Frank Slide Interpretive Centre or explore an underground mine. It was the worst rockslide Canada has ever had. Over 90 people from the town of Frank were in the path of the mountain as it came down. Some bodies have never been recovered. Unfortunately this isn’t the only record setting tragedy in the area.
The Hillcrest mine disaster was the worst coal mining disaster in Canadian history, in June 1914. Only 48 of the 237 men were rescued. There are other coal mines in the vicinity where explosions killed men but this was the largest. Alberta has opened up this area to mining again, so the story of coal mine fatalities hasn’t ended for Alberta yet. There will be more to come.
There will be other victims besides miners. Besides the towns that suffer from the blasting noise and dust, some ranches depend on the Mount Livingstone Range like John Smith and Laura Laing do. Their story was featured in Canadian Cattlemen in July 2020. The Mount Livingstone Range supports many ranches that will be devastated as coal mining continues. The type of mining Benga Mining will do is called mountain top removal that opens the area up to open pit mining.
The run-off tailings from these mines get held in ponds, treated to some and released back into the environment. This contains various heavy metals mixed with selenium. Selenium is toxic to birds, fish and humans in large quantities. Releasing this type of chemical into the environment will eventually leech into the waterways. There have been a lot of attempts by various companies employing different methods to filter and extract the selenium, and regardless of the success they claim to have achieved, they have all failed.
According to Yale University, “in humans, chronic exposure to high selenium concentrations can cause nausea, fatigue, skin lesions, and neurological disorders. In other animals, high levels of the element have been shown to cause liver damage, paralysis, and even death. In the waterways it leeches into, it bioaccumulates in fish and plants, meaning the concentration keeps becoming more toxic to its host. It will kill the fish and deplete the resources altogether. Larger animals like cattle have become infected and gotten sick so it’s very important to monitor any water supply where animals or birds will have access to.
One of the biggest selenium contamination issues in the world is taking place in the Elk River’s tributaries to waters downstream that cross into the United States. Tech Resources has a number of metallurgical coal mines operating just inside the border of British Columbia in roughly the same area as the Grassy Mountain mine will be. The issues they are facing with international lawsuits and million dollar fines will be echoed by Alberta’s Coal mine. See the environmental hazard assessment of Benga Mining’s proposed Grassy Mountain Coal Project.
A. Dennis Lemly who authored the report, said:
It’s not that there is a lack of regulations promulgated under the statutory authority of government, there is a lack of enforcement of those statutory laws by government. Today, with the large body of scientific information and case study evidence available demonstrating the selenium threat from coal mining in Alberta and elsewhere, there is no longer plausible deniability. There is no legitimate basis for the claim “we didn’t know better”, either on the part of the mining industry or the regulatory community in which it operates.
Minister of the Environment and Climate Change, Jonathan Wilkinson, will do a federal impact assessment. The federal government was prepared to let this slide. They are aware of the environmental impact this project will have on the area and that the selenium being released into the waterways will continue to contaminate the area for decades after the mine has closed. But this has never stopped the approval of a coal mine so it isn’t likely this time.
Selenium leeching into the Oldman River may be a concern as it supplies 40% of the irrigated land in Alberta and the entire water supply for Lethbridge. It isn’t likely to cause any trouble in the near future but bioaccumulation means it could be a problem in the future and one that will be very hard to deal with. In Sparwood, BC selenium from Tech Resources has poisoned one of their wells. There were other private wells with much higher (13.5 micrograms per liter) than safe limits as well.
There isn’t a lot of safety information about how the mine and government will contain this toxic environment. Perhaps they will continue to turn their heads. You know, if you don’t see it, then it isn’t a problem.
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