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Deleterious Substances in the Athabasca River is a Toxic Brew

An article in the Globe & Mail Sept 7, 2020 says, “a central tenet of industrial development is the polluter-pays principle” but it seldom happens. Alberta is no different. It has been estimated that to clean up all the abandoned oil and gas wells throughout the province, it will cost $260 billion and take 30 years to complete.

The Commission for Environmental Cooperation released a report that “asserted that the Government of Canada was failing to effectively enforce the pollution prevention provisions of the federal Fisheries Act with respect to the alleged leaking of deleterious substances from oil sands tailings ponds in northeastern Alberta, Canada.” Alberta’s Athabasca River and its tributaries and area groundwater are being polluted by this seepage and the Fisheries Act was designed to protect fish from contamination and deleterious substances. It seems neither the federal nor provincial government have anything in place to monitor this.

Deleterious Substances? How bad can it be? What is it?

Fracking is a popular way to extract oil and gas. Water and chemicals create a brine mixture they shoot down into the wells for flushing. Naturally it’s this mixture is contaminated when it’s returned to the surface. They store it in holding ponds or tailing ponds. They are looking into ways this can be filtered, cleaned and returned to the Athabasca River. But the seepage from these ponds hasn’t been cleaned and it’s loaded with toxins.

On the east coast a few years ago, frackers were drilling exploratory wells. They didn’t have any plan for getting rid of the millions of litres of wastewater. Atlantic Industrial Services (AIS) asked Windsor, a town of 3,785 people in Hants County in western Nova Scotia, to dispose of the fracking waste water. Questions were raised after millions of litres of wastewater was put through the town’s sewage treatment plant. From there it would be flushed out into the Minas Basin and make its way to the Bay of Fundy.

Experts were consulted. The wastewater was deemed safe to dispose of. Not everyone was convinced. Ken Summers, a member of the Nova Scotia Fracking Resource and Action Coalition, had the resources to begin an investigation. These were difficult times to look for scientific information. In 2014 Prime Minister Stephen Harper shut down or pulled funding for hundreds of federal programs and world renowned research facilities.

Mr. Summers released a report, “Critical Toxins Present, But Will Not Be Tested For,” in 2015. In his report he says:

These chemical compounds listed as present in hydraulic fracturing waste include, but are not limited to, Methanol, Isoproponal, Ethoxylated Alcohol, Trisodium Nitrotriacetate, Sodium Persulphate, Diethylene Glycol Monomethyl Ether, Acrylamide Copolymer, Fatty Acid Esters, Terpene, Alcohol, Alkyl Alkoxylate, Methylene Bis (Thocyanate), and 2-(Thiocyanomethylthio) Benzothiozole.

Most of these compounds are documented to pose health risks, yet do not have provincial or federal health guidelines at this time. Over two-thirds of these compounds are rated as having moderate to high risks to human health. The last two compounds are biocides to which the EPA gave their highest level warning: Toxicity Category 1.[2]

Methylene Bis (Thocyanate)
(Thiocyanomethylthio) Benzothiozole

Here’s a look at some other chemicals Mr. Summers mentions in his report:

Trisodium nitrilotriacetate:
Known as a carcinogen. Also an environmental hazard as it hinders the elimination of heavy metals in wastewater treatment systems. It appears in products like Tilex Soap Scum Remover & Sunlight Laundry Detergent. It is also a common flame retardant. Although it is a known carcinogen, it is overly dangerous in wastewater.

Sodium Persulfate:
Exposure via inhalation or skin contact can cause sensitization, i.e., after initial exposure individuals may subsequently react to exposure at very low levels of that substance. Exposure can also cause skin rashes and eczema. Sodium persulfate is irritating to eyes and respiratory system and long-term exposure may cause changes in lung function (i.e. pneumoconiosis resulting in disease of in airways) and/or asthma.

Benzothiazole:
A chemcial ring of Benzene and Toluene. Short-term health effects of exposure include dizziness, headaches, loss of coordination, respiratory distress, and skin, eye, nose and throat irritation. Long-term health effects of exposure include kidney, liver, and blood system damage. Long-term exposure to benzene can affect bone marrow, causing anaemia and increasing the risk of leukaemia and diseases such as non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Benzene is a health hazard even in minute quantities. Australian drinking water guidelines for benzene state that there is “no safe concentration of benzene in drinking water.”

Methanol:
A highly toxic VOC is readily absorbed via ingestion, inhalation, and skin exposure. Causes central nervous system depression and degenerative changes in the brain and visual system. In the body, methanol is metabolized into formaldehyde and formic acid, and is toxic in very small doses if ingested. Chronic exposure causes headaches, insomnia, gastrointestinal problems, and blindness in humans.

The above chemical descriptions were obtained from an article written by Dr. Wayne Somerville B.A. (Hons.), M.Clin.Psych., D.Psy. Clinical Psychologist, titled CSG and Your Health: Understand the Risks and Protecting Your Family

Acrylamide Copolymer:
Once inside the body, acrylamide binds to red blood cells. Potential symptoms of overexposure to monomeric acrylamide include numbness of the limbs, and weakness and lack of coordination in the legs. Long-term exposure to small doses of acrylamide can cause nerve damage in the extremities. Some tunnel construction workers have experienced neurological damage from exposure to acrylamide in the grout. Animal studies have shown acrylamide to be a carcinogen, although evidence supporting increased cancer in humans following occupational exposure to acrylamide remains controversial.

Terpene:
Classified as a Group 1 carcinogen. The Environmental Protection Agency’s report (removed after Trump was elected during his assault on the EPA) in the US warned about:

ECOTOXICITY
• Acute Toxicity to Fish
• Acute Toxicity to Aquatic Invertebrates
• Acute Toxicity to Aquatic Plants

HUMAN HEALTH TOXICITY
• Acute Toxicity
• Genetic Toxicity
• Repeat Dose Toxicity
• Reproductive Toxicity
• Developmental/Teratogenicity Toxicity

Alkyl Alkoxylate:
The production and use of nonylphenol and nonyphenol ethoxylates is prohibited in the European Union due to its effects on health and the environment. In Europe, due to environmental concerns. Besides being a known carcinogen, it has been shown to have a negative impact on pregnant women, and people’s metabolism. Wikipedia has a good article on it if you would like more information.

There hasn’t been any mention of NORMs yet. Naturally Occurring Radioactive Material are brought to the surface with the wastewater. Radium-226 is five times the density of water. It’s going to sink into the sediment of the Athabasca River and bio-accumulate. It is a natural carcinogen and will be found in larger quantities where fracking occurs.

Radium-226 has a half-shelf life of 1,600 years, but after it has been brought to the surface it starts decaying immediately. This means it breaks down into several other radioactive chemicals and soon becomes Radon.

A 2012 Health Canada study found that more than seven per cent of the homes measured in Calgary, Peace River, David Thompson Country and Aspen regional health districts had dangerous levels of radon (200 becquerels per cubic metre). High levels of radon have also been found in northeast B.C. That geographic region has also witnessed intense shale gas activity over the last decade.

There’s no safe amount of toxins or foreign chemicals we can ingest with impunity. The dance with toxins is a game of chemical Russian Roulette. It doesn’t matter whether these chemicals are used in the east or the west, the toxicity is the same. There may be slight differences due to variances in soil, but these chemicals will all be present in fracking wastewater.

7 lessons Canada should use from WW2 to fight the climate emergency

1. Adopt an emergency mindset

When we approach a crisis by naming the emergency and the need for wartime-scale action, it creates a new sense of shared purpose. It renews unity across Canada’s confederation, and liberates a level of political action that previously seemed impossible.

Economic ideas once deemed off-limits are newly considered. And we become collectively willing to see our governments adopt mandatory policies, replacing voluntary measures that merely incentivize and encourage change with clear timelines and regulatory fiat to drive change.

Smoky skyline with boat in the foreground. — Metro Vancouver issued an air quality advisory on Sept. 8, 2020, due to the smoke from wildfires burning south of the U.S. border.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward

2. Rally the public at every turn

Many assume that at the outbreak of the Second World War everyone understood the threat and was ready to rally. But that was not so.

It took leadership to mobilize the public. In frequency and tone, in words and in action, the climate mobilization needs to look and sound and feel like an emergency.

If our governments don’t behave as though climate change is an emergency — or they send contradictory messages by approving new fossil fuel infrastructure — they are telling the public that it is not one.

3. Inequality is toxic to mass mobilization

A successful mobilization requires that people across class, race and gender share a common cause. The public must have confidence that the rich, middle- and modest-income people are all making sacrifices.

During the First World War, inequality undermined such efforts. Consequently, at the outset of the Second World War, the federal government took bold steps to lessen inequality and limit excess profits.

Such measures are needed again today. Moreover, a 2019 survey of 2,000 Canadians shows that when ambitious climate action is linked to tackling inequality, support goes dramatically up.

4. Create the economic institutions to get the job done

During the Second World War the Canadian economy and its labour force pumped out planes, military vehicles, ships and armaments at a speed and scale that is simply mind-blowing.

The Canadian government (under the leadership of cabinet minister C.D. Howe) established 28 Crown corporations to meet the supply and munitions requirements of the war effort. The private sector had a key role to play in that economic transition, but vitally, it was not allowed to determine the allocation of scarce resources. In a time of emergency, we don’t leave such decisions to the market.

Two men lean over some scientific equipment. — C.D. Howe watches a scientist test the curve of a lens.
(National Film Board of Canada. Photothèque. Library and Archives Canada), CC BY

Howe’s department undertook detailed economic planning to ensure wartime production was prioritized, conducting a national inventory of wartime supply needs and production capacity and coordinating the supply chains of all core war production inputs (machine tools, rubber, metals, timber, coal, oil and more).

The climate emergency demands a similar approach. We must again conduct an inventory of conversion needs, determining how many heat pumps, solar arrays, wind farms, electric buses, etc., we will need to electrify virtually everything and end our reliance on fossil fuels. And we will need a new generation of Crown corporations to then ensure those items are manufactured and deployed at the requisite scale.

5. Spend what it takes to win

A wartime advertisement showing a woman holding a bomb — A poster from the Second World War.
(Library and Archives Canada, C-091436), CC BY

A benefit of an emergency mentality is that it forces governments out of an austerity mindset and liberates the public purse. This year, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Canada’s federal debt-to-GDP ratio will rise to about 50 per cent. At the end of the Second World War, it was 108 per cent.

To finance the war effort, the government issued new public Victory Bonds and new forms of progressive taxation were instituted. Yet these new taxes and what remains to this day historic levels of public debt did not produce economic disaster. On the contrary, they heralded an era of record economic performance.

As we confront the climate emergency, financing the transformation before us requires that we employ similar tools.

6. Indigenous leadership, title and rights

Indigenous Peoples played an important role in the Second World War. Today, their collective role in successfully confronting the climate crisis is pivotal.

As mainstream politicians dither on meaningful and coherent climate action, the assertion of Indigenous title and rights is slowing and blocking new fossil fuel projects. Some of Canada’s most inspiring renewable energy projects are also happening under First Nations’ leadership. It is imperative to both honour and support such efforts.

7. Leave no one behind

The Second World War saw over one million Canadians enlist in military service and even more employed in munitions production (far more than are employed in the fossil fuel industry today). After the war, they were all reintegrated into a peacetime economy, including income support to housing to post-secondary training for returning soldiers.

The ambition of these initiatives provides a model for what a just transition can look like today for all workers whose economic and employment security is currently tied to the fossil fuel economy, with a special focus on those provinces and regions most reliant on oil and gas production.

As I read the latest scientific warnings, I’m afraid. I feel deep anxiety about the state of the world we are leaving to our children and beyond. In truth, we don’t know if we will win this fight. But it is worth recalling that those who rallied in the face of fascism 80 years ago likewise didn’t know if they would win.

During the war’s early years, the outcome was far from certain. Yet that generation rallied and surprised themselves by what they could achieve. That’s the spirit we need today.

Seth Klein, Adjunct Professor, Urban Studies Program, Simon Fraser University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Steve MacLellan

Ramble On

Tag Archives: environment

Deleterious Substances in the Athabasca River is a Toxic Brew

7 lessons Canada should use from WW2 to fight the climate emergency