I think there's some pretty trusting people on here. 2 weeks in, and Environment hasn't released any data and the company hasn't even bothered to put out a press release.
Edmonton Journal seems to be the only outlet still tracking this:
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/Simon...015/story.html
EDMONTON - Mercury levels nine times higher than normal.
Levels of cancer-causing polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons four times the allowed standard for Canadian drinking water.
Those are the kinds of disturbing test results Dr. James Talbot, Alberta’s chief medical officer of health, is seeing as he monitors a huge plume of coal mine waste water currently oozing down the Athabasca River.
“Our overriding concern is the safety of the drinking water,” says Talbot. “We’re advising people, ‘Don’t draw water as the plume is going by.’ ”
On Oct. 31, an estimated one billion litres of waste water leaked out of a containment pit at the old Obed Mountain coal mine, some 30 kilometres east of Hinton. The mine, owned by Sherritt International, has been non-operational since 2012.
The sediment suspension is now more than 100 km long, and moving at a pace of just under five kilometres per hour. By Wednesday, it was 10 km past the town of Athabasca, on its inexorable way toward Wood Buffalo National Park. Alberta Environment says nothing can be done to clean it up, or stop its progress.
Environment Minister Diana McQueen says her department has been conducting regular tests of the water. But McQueen says the ministry intends to keep all the results confidential, at least for now.
“They will be made public after the investigation is over.”
Still, McQueen insists people shouldn’t worry.
“There are no public health concerns with the water,” says McQueen. “Albertans can feel very confident that we are on top of this situation. We have very strict environmental standards in this province, and they’re all being followed.”
Talbot, thank goodness, is less coy about the data.
The province’s chief public health official was notified of the spill on the afternoon of Friday, Nov 1.
While about the 30 per cent of the plume is made up of relatively inert solids, including coal particulates, and clay, shale and sandstone deposits, Talbot also asked Alberta Environment to test the waste water for heavy metals, including mercury, lead and selenium, as well as potential carcinogens, including benzene and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.
Talbot says water in the immediate vicinity of the plume had high levels of some of those pollutants.
The Canadian drinking water standard for benzo (a) pyrene, a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon and suspected carcinogen, which has been linked to elevated rates of skin cancers and reproductive disorders, is 0.01 micrograms per litre.
According to Talbot’s data, at peak, the river water near the plume had levels of benzo (a) pyrene that were approximately four times that of the allowable drinking water standard.
Mercury levels in the water near the plume, according to the data, were nine times higher than baseline measures for the river. However, Talbot stresses that as high as the mercury levels were, they were still within allowable limits for human consumption.
The good news, he says, is that water treatment plants were given enough notice by Alberta Health Services that none actually drew any of the polluted water from the river. As well, he says, as the mass of waste flows down river, the water behind has largely returned to normal.
For example, Talbot’s test results show that levels of benzo (a) pyrene in the water behind the plume are now at or below the Canadian drinking water standard.
Over the winter, Talbot says, the hydrocarbons in the river should dissipate or be broken down naturally by bacteria. He is more concerned about the long-term effects of heavy metals, such as mercury, which stay in the environment.
In the spring, Talbot says the province will need to test the mercury levels of fish in the Athabasca, to determine a safe level of human consumption.
Talbot’s straightforward analysis is both refreshing and reassuring. And it just underlines how clumsily the Environment Department, with its secrecy and evasion, has handled this file.
Alberta desperately needs to burnish its environmental reputation on the international stage. So why does our government persist in handling environmental accidents in this amateurish, defensive way?
If we want a social licence to develop our carbon resources, from coal to oilsands, we have to start managing environmental crises professionally and transparently, giving the public and the world accurate information, instead of offering empty, even false, assurances that everything is just fine.
With luck, the Athabasca River ecosystem will eventually recover from this murky mess. Alberta’s reputation for environmental stewardship? That may be a different story.