The country you love WATER CONTAMINATION and Tail ponds, industrial developments waste management system approved by provincial and federal regulations . Tar sands extraction requires between 3.5 and 5 barrels of water and only 10% can be returned to the river system. The vast majority ends up in lake-size tailing ponds filled with water and toxic materials which form a thick toxic sludge. These toxic lakes currently cover over 55 km2 in parts of Northern Alberta. If collectively dumped into Lake Erie, they would create a pool 20 cm deep, and by 2030, the waste would be 1m deep. Syncrudes Tailing Dyke pond was built in 1978 and is 22 km2 in size, the largest dam in the world except for the Three Gorges in China. Syncrude dumps 500,000 tons of waste every day, and the pond now contains more than 540 million m3 of tailings. In Sarnia there are four refineries that receive tar sands crude. Downstream from Imperial Oil and Suncor refineries in Sarnia, serious health concerns have been raised by the Aamjiwnaang First Nation. The community has seen twice as many girls born as men, and have reported feminization in turtles in the St. Clair River. While the Suncor refinery is only one of many major polluters in the area, they are ranked number one for releasing pollutants that are known or suspected to cause reproductive and developmental toxicants. Downstream from the tar sands on the Athabasca are more than 360,000 Aboriginal peoples. The Community of Fort McKay is not only downstream, but also surrounded by tar sands development. Also downstream is the community of Fort Chipewyan, on the southwestern tip of Lake Athabasca. A study conducted for the Fort Chipewyan community found differing levels of chemical constituents exceed guideline levels downstream of the tar sands. Dr John OConnor, a physician who started treating residents of Fort Chipewyan in late 2000, noticed auto-immune diseases, and a large number of people with diabetes, renal failure, hypertension, high rates of cancer, and specifically certain rare types of cancer, that shouldn$t been seen in the numbers seen in a community of Fort Chipewyan$s size. Perhaps nothing more dramatically illustrates this problem than the sudden massacre of ducks that occurred in late April 2008. A flock of over 500 ducks landed on the Syncrude tailings pond, which is situated along a major migratory route for waterfowl. Only three of the ducks were rescued while more than 500 perished. Around the world, news of the ducks that died in Syncrude$s tailings pond spread like wildfire. Images of dead ducks smothered in oil appeared on the front pages of newspapers and on television news broadcasts. Instantly, the incident sparked public furor and further tarnished Canada$s environmental reputation. Although Syncrude officials apologized and Prime Minister Harper acknowledged the !terrible tragedy# that had occurred, the fact remains that the tailings ponds are highly toxic and pose an ongoing and profound environmental threat. The incident also proved to be a major setback to Premier Stelmach$s 25-million-dollar campaign to assure the US and the rest of the world that the Alberta tar sands are !environmentally friendly.#... This picture is one tail pond from mining in British Columbia , if the liberal and conservative agenda is executed tail ponds like this one will be springing up in corners all around your fresh water supplies , its no longer an issue if these ponds are healthy , its a matter of preventing a sure devastation to drinking water , secure wildlife and the ecosystem of these areas and to prevent liabilities of foreign law suits for managing and regulating our own fres water . Canadians receiving a declaration of clean water a human right is vital to our Human Rights and Democracy . its an opportunity to secure protection to our basic necessity and human right . I hop you agree . HANDS OFF OUR FRESH WATER . CHANGE .ORG GOOGLE IT
Posted on: Thu, 24 Oct 2013 23:27:11 +0000
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