Perspective: Fort Mac and the Oil Sands - Cleaning Up after Mother Nature

[Stinky Buffalo]

I found this posted on LinkedIn a while back, and I thought this was an interesting perspective.

This is from before my time, and it would be interesting to hear from our Ft. Mac. AO'ers if this rings true.

If so, maybe it would be good to have this in mind when we are speaking with some of those who would love to see the Oil Sands development disappear.

Here's a quote from a resident of Fort McMurray before the oil boom:

"I lived in Fort McMurray from 1963-1965 before big oil moved in. There were 1200 people living in Waterways/Fort McMurray. I can tell you at that time oil was seeping into the Athabasca River, and we were told not to eat the fish from it, the Clearwater was ok. You could tell where the oil sands were located as the trees were stunted, twisted, and deformed. There were plenty of tar pits that would trap animals.

My sister and I laugh at the environmentalists when they say the oil companies are destroying the region, when in fact the oil companies are cleaning up Nature's oil spill and returning it to a pristine forest and lakes.

Though I would say that none of these environmentalists were born before the oil companies started to clean it up or even their parents likely never even heard of the tar sands region, as when I lived in Fort Mac the only way you could get to there was by air or train, there was no highway.

So instead of attacking the oil industry, we should applaud them for cleaning up an oil spill made by nature.

That's the trouble with these so-called green people, they only hear and shout out the propaganda they have been paid for and know nothing of the past history.

Can't believe there is such a following of the chicken littles."

[tallieho]

I was there for 13 mths straight in 1973.Drove up,left my **** can car in the p/lot.Just in the air,the slime on all the car.Couldnot open the doors,the goo tsuck to the car.Had it towed to a carwash,to cut thru the stuff.After about 10 bucks ,was able to open te doors.

[catnthehat]

I have lived up here since 1973.
The rivers always had bitumen floating g in them, somexworsectgan others.
On the banks of the Athabasca you can see bitumen leaking out of them in the hot weather and it has been noted by the earliest exploerers that ever came up the rivers .
One of the reasons that the trees mentioned in that article are stunted is not because of the tarsand however, but because of the amount of muskeg up there.
There are trees in other parts of tarsands region that have bases of 24" or more .
And yes, we called it tarsands back then and some of us still call it the tarsands. In fact onecof the biggest contractors up here for years was Tarsands Machine and Welding .

Cat

[big_plinker]

Go spend a month on the tailing ponds of kearl lake during break up and tell me you think anything related to extracting oil from the tar sands, that is being extracted at a rate of 1000000-4000000 barrels/day (at 2 barrels of oil produced per m3 of sand, with 1m3 water forever chemically contaminated per barrel produced) is environmentally friendlier than the oil that naturally leaches into the water courses.
This is propaganda. And as much as I appreciate the oil field, it's fed my family and the families of millions in this country alone the last 80 years, it's also a business. In a world that's trying to change, for better or worse.
And business doesn't like losing business.
And will spend a lot of money lobbying, bribing, and buying public opinion, so that it can continue to make a lot more money. At the expense of EVERYTHING else.
We're a very short sighted breed.

[catnthehat]

The oil companies have done an exemplary job of cleaning up the tarsands - before and after , leavng them better than when before they started.
A blind man can see that , unless one wants to only focus on rhe negative like some politicians and celebrities have done in the past.
Cat

[Grizzly Adams1]

Originally Posted by catnthehat

I have lived up here since 1973.
The rivers always had bitumen floating g in them, somexworsectgan others.
On the banks of the Athabasca you can see bitumen leaking out of them in the hot weather and it has been noted by the earliest exploerers that ever came up the rivers .
One of the reasons that the trees mentioned in that article are stunted is not because of the tarsand however, but because of the amount of muskeg up there.
There are trees in other parts of tarsands region that have bases of 24" or more .
And yes, we called it tarsands back then and some of us still call it the tarsands. In fact onecof the biggest contractors up here for years was Tarsands Machine and Welding .

Cat

In 1717, Henry Kelsey was the first European to see oil oozing into the river, from the oil sands, had to look that up, the Natives used it to waterproof their canoes. Move along folks, there's nothing new to see here.

Grizz

[Bushrat]

Originally Posted by big_plinker

Go spend a month on the tailing ponds of kearl lake during break up and tell me you think anything related to extracting oil from the tar sands, that is being extracted at a rate of 1000000-4000000 barrels/day (at 2 barrels of oil produced per m3 of sand, with 1m3 water forever chemically contaminated per barrel produced) is environmentally friendlier than the oil that naturally leaches into the water courses.
This is propaganda. And as much as I appreciate the oil field, it's fed my family and the families of millions in this country alone the last 80 years, it's also a business. In a world that's trying to change, for better or worse.
And business doesn't like losing business.
And will spend a lot of money lobbying, bribing, and buying public opinion, so that it can continue to make a lot more money. At the expense of EVERYTHING else.
We're a very short sighted breed.

You are correct and that same formula of deception is being used to promote the 'Green' global electric transition. This is not a clean industry and we will find out as this transition unfolds, the human and environmental costs of this transition is going to slowly become apparent to us. They are not telling us a whole lot of things, they are 'selling' us an agenda that isn't going to turn out in any way shape or form like they are promising. A lot of people will become poorer for the experience while the few orchestrators will become fabulously wealty off of this scheme. Meanwhile we trash and throw away a perfectly good petroleum infrastructure worth Trillions of invested dollars that has served us well and reliably on the gamble that an alternative source of energy that will cost us trillions of dollars along with huge environmental costs like we have never seen before will simply all work out without a hitch and there will be nothing but sunshine ,lollypops and rainbows everywhere.

Give your head a shake, this has already become a deceptive dirty underhanded deal right from the start and people are being duped like never before. This isn't going to do one damned good thing for the environment or the people. The power brokers are the ones who will benefit financially once again at the expense of people and the environment.