[IPSM] Alberta Government declares water for tarsands sacred even in drought

[Macdonald Stainsby]

Alberta Government declares water for tarsands sacred even in drought

Intro rant by Macdonald Stainsby

This is the crux of the matter: water.

Now that the government has officially decided that the needs of feeding
climate change are more important that even emergencies such as drought
relief, the time to allow these people to make decisions regarding the
tarsands has gone beyond past due.

Their entire corrupted scheme of approvals, consultations, community
hearings and report issuances has all produced in the last month alone: on
one hand the population base of the planet has become ever more sharp and
clear in their demands for serious action on climate change, on the other?
The people in charge have systematically either called for patience on
tarsands policy writing, or have instead called for the outright
heightening of the tarsands production.

In the past few days, the streamlining of another massive pit for tarsand
operations took place, the NEB greenwashed the MGP and now the government
in Edmonton has promised to protect the waste of the freshwater in rivers
for tarsand petrol, even during drought. All right after US calls for
fivefold expansion of production.

The conservatives accuse the Liberals of "threatening" to shutdown the
tarsands, and Dion whimpers "Don't worry, not possible," and he's right.

The gulf between rulers and ruled is never clearer than when the
directions being proposed are at exact loggerheads.

People are listing the environment-- specifically climate change-- as
their primary concern right now. As the population sees the Katrina like
evidence mounting, the US energy giants are calling for rapid increase--
five fold-- in all tar sands output. That means not merely more C02 from
the gas burning, but the five-fold increase of this industrial development
within Canada that already is 40 percent of national C02 emissions alone,
not taking into account the massive industrial infrastructure being
planned from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic to the Pacific to the
Atlantic. All connected.

And for every litre that comes of this "plan", five litres of water gone,
according to the provincial government of Alberta. The Feds subsidize
already through tax breaks amounting over a billion dollars a year. For
over five years you can already buy "access rights" to water and now, the
water that produces oil for the war economy is more important than the
water that people drink, that gives life and that helps grow food.

Ignoring or playing this down, all political parties then speak of Kyoto
with a Cheney-like grip on reality. None address the contradiction with a
plan, because the rulers won't let you get elected if you touch their oil.
So we have to do it.

We cannot settle for a moratorium. Yet even the mere suggestion has power
trembling in fear. Draining the rivers more slowly is not a compromise
position, it is the death of life. The tarsands and feeding a dying system
addicted to oil, or shutting off production before it takes on any more
self-perpetuating logic trying to prop a failed economic order up.

We impose our vision, or we accept theirs.

Macdonald
--
New plan gives oilsands its fill of water, even during a drought

Firms will be able to draw 50 bathtubs worth of water a second from
Athabasca River

Hanneke Brooymans, The Edmonton Journal
Published: Friday, March 02, 2007

EDMONTON - Alberta Environment's new water management plan for the
Athabasca River makes some people "anxious" because it will still allow
oilsands companies to withdraw water during a serious drought.

The Athabasca River Water Management Framework comes after calls from
First Nations, environmentalists and a recent cabinet-appointed committee
for a plan to protect the needs of people and wildlife that rely on the
river.

Alberta Environment's plan relies on constant monitoring of the river's
flow to make decisions about how much water companies can pump out of the
Athabasca.

The river is split into five sections, or reaches, each rated in
sensitivity according to how vital it is for fish spawning. If the flow of
water through a reach is considered healthy, it's rated green and industry
is allowed 15 per cent of the river's flow. Impacts may begin to appear
during a yellow rating and withdrawals then should not be more than 10 per
cent of the flow, the plan says.

About five per cent of the time, the river shrinks to a level where
significant ecosystem change is expected. This warrants a red-zone label,
but companies are still allowed to withdraw 15,000 litres per second.

That's a significant amount -- enough to fill 50 bathtubs, said Dan
Woynillowicz, policy analyst with the Pembina Institute, an environmental
think-tank.

"For the government to say this is protective rings hollow," he said.

Dr. David Swann, environment critic for the Liberal Party, said he's not
comfortable with that part of the plan.

"That makes me very anxious, when they're still talking about withdrawals
and we're down in the area where there is actual threat to survival of
species."

But Environment Minister Rob Renner said the amount withdrawn during
red-zone periods makes up about five per cent of the flow at the time.

Renner said the plan is significant because it represents the first
opportunity the department has had to deal with environmental regulations
based on the cumulative effects of an entire industry, rather than on a
company-by-company basis.

Last year during the hearing for the recently approved Kearl oilsands
project, the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans predicted oilsands
companies will withdraw a total of 15,000 litres per second by 2010. That
also happens to be the withdrawal limit during red-zone periods in the
winter.

Industry is pleased the water management plan is now official. The figures
provide the kind of certainty industry needs to plan projects, said David
Pryce, a vice-president with the Canadian Association of Petroleum
Producers.

Government told industry to provide reports on how it planned to meet the
new water withdrawal limits. Those reports were due at the end of January.

Ongoing scientific studies could make the water withdrawal limits tighter
if fish habitat is found to be more sensitive than currently known. But
Pryce said the limits are already quite conservative and he doesn't expect
they will become more restrictive.

Last year, oilsands companies were licensed to take 395.7 billion litres a
year from the river, the equivalent of 395,700 Olympic-sized swimming
pools.

For comparison, the industries and the 930,000 people in and around
Edmonton who get their water from Epcor used 121 billion litres in 2005.

hbrooymans at thejournal.canwest.com



--
Macdonald Stainsby
http://independentmedia.ca/survivingcanada/
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/rad-green
In the contradiction lies the hope.
--Brecht.