Pacific Spirit Marine Institute
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
It takes 2 – 4.5 cubic metres of water to produce 1 cubic metre of synthetic crude oil from oil sands. With the price and availability of oil these days, billions of barrels of water are at risk of being poisoned and abandoned in tailing ponds.
Water, used to extract the bitumen required to produce millions of barrels of oil, will end up a toxic soup of sludge. The same toxic soup water killed more than 500 ducks on April 28th in Alberta, Canada.
What may be the world’s largest oil deposit, in oil sand, is located in Alberta, Canada. It’s estimated as much as 180 billion barrels of oil could be recoverable in the Athabasca region of Alberta. There are toxic lakes covering 50 square kilometres around Syncrude Canada, who, if found negligent in the deaths of the ducks could face fines of $1 million.
Alberta’s 59 tar sands sites represent the largest single industrial zone on the face of the planet. Investment in the oil sands is expected to exceed $75 Billion over the next 5 years. Oil production will increase by 160% and the man-made wasteland that will come along will as well, maybe by 54,000 square miles.
The oil industry uses 15% of the Athabasca Rivers winter water flow. Summer flows and winter low flows in the Athabasca have declined by nearly 30% since 1970. The industry is licensed to draw 414,396 cubic decameters of water per year from the river. That’s enough water to supply the water needs for a city of 2 million people for one year.
Demand for food, water and oil are increasing at rates the world has never before seen.
We will all have plenty of gas in our cars so that we can drive around looking for food and water. We can die of thirst or starve to death, but at least we won’t have to be walking!
Labels: Alberta, Athabasca, Canada, Oil Sands, Oil shale, Oil tar
© 2009, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
Deep Fried Duck. Demand for Oil Will Cook Our Goose.
