MONTREAL – Quebec’s environment minister has announced a new inspection program will be carried out on known PCB sites in the province.
Yves-Francois Blanchet says priority will be given to 60 licensed PCB sites, which will be checked between now and April 2014.
The inspections will be carried out on 1,300 sites around the province over the next five years.
“All real and potential sites on Quebec’s territory will be visited to be checked to ensure that they conform to existing rules when it comes to PCBs,” Blanchet said.
[quote]We want to make sure no sites have slipped through and that our repertoire is up-to-date.[/quote]
Blanchet made the announcement at a news conference Tuesday in suburban Pointe-Claire, a town where a company had been illegally storing PCBs.
Toxic materials had been present there for years, but were only detected in March after a spill of about 1,000 litres on the property.
Reliance Power Equipment Ltd., the company that had been illegally storing the polychlorinated biphenyls, has ignored repeated warnings to clean up the mess.
In September, the Quebec government stepped in and took over the cleanup of the site, which could cost as much as $3.5 million.
Blanchet also told a news conference that decontamination of the site will resume in the spring.
Pointe-Claire Mayor Morris Trudeau said his town is working with other elected officials and Montreal fire services to ensure that prevention experts inspect all industrial buildings on the island of Montreal on a yearly basis.
The environment minister said the inspections across Quebec will be carried out using existing resources and without any additional inspectors.
He pointed to a chart which showed a massive reduction of PCBs in Quebec since 2000. The quantity of legally stored PCBs went from 1,200 metric tonnes to less than 200 metric tonnes in 2012.
Blanchet is also calling on residents who are worried that PCBs might be stored near their homes to contact his department.
The incident has stirred memories in Quebec of the 1988 St-Basile-le-Grand crisis, where thousands of people were evacuated from their homes following an explosion at a warehouse that housed PCBs.
In announcing the approvals Monday, the national energy regulator noted that recent developments in gas production technology have resulted in a significant increase in the Canadian gas resource base and the North American gas supply.
“One of the major impacts of this increase is lower demand for Canadian gas in traditional gas markets in the United States and Eastern Canada,” it said.
“As a result, the Canadian gas industry is seeking to access overseas gas markets through exports of LNG.”
The board said it had determined that the quantity of gas each company proposed to exported “will be surplus to Canadian requirements,” and that the large North American natural gas resource base can accommodate “reasonably foreseeable Canadian demand.”
Meanwhile, federal Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver confirmed that the federal government would be reviewing the approvals before licences are issued.
“. . . The Harper government supports energy projects that will create jobs and generate economic growth in Canada for future generations,” Oliver said.
However, the government will only allow energy projects to proceed “if they are found to be safe for Canadians after an independent, science-based environmental and regulatory review.”
Syncrude tailings pond (photo: David Dodge, Pembina Institute)
EDMONTON – Oilsands producers are talking with the federal and Alberta governments about conditions under which water from the industry’s tailings ponds could be released into the environment.
Officials say releases would only involve treated water and wouldn’t happen until the end of a mine’s life.
Environmentalists are watching the discussions closely and warn that quality standards for released tailings water should be high.
“If they’d be willing to take the water and dump it in the Bow River near Calgary, then perhaps,” said Keith Stewart of Greenpeace.
Alberta has a zero discharge policy for the oilsands. No water affected by processing is allowed back into the Athabasca River and even rain that falls on developed sites must be collected and stored.
Most of that water is kept in tailings ponds.
Companies failing to meet regulations for tailings ponds
The ponds — covering 170 square kilometres with a toxic blend of hydrocarbons, silt, salts and heavy metals — have been a lingering headache for the industry. Alberta’s energy regulator has already had to relax on enforcing regulations about cleaning up the ponds after companies pleaded they would simply be unable to meet their targets.
But as the province develops new tailings regulations, there is general acknowledgment that something will have to be done with the water currently filling the ponds once contaminants have been removed and stored at the bottom of so-called end-pit lakes. Said department spokeswoman Nikki Booth in an email:
[quote](Alberta Environment) is consulting on a tailings management framework with industry and First Nations. Included in that consultation are discussions about introducing tailings water (free of the tailings) back into natural waterways at the end of a project.[/quote]
Those discussions have been occurring for some time. Documents obtained under Access to Information laws refer in the summer of 2012 to “the industry request for tailings release as a management option.”
Federal environment spokesman Mark Johnson confirmed that reference.
“A small number of oil and gas stakeholders … have expressed an interest in a science-focused dialogue with experts from Environment Canada and Alberta Environment and Sustainable Development on the environmental considerations of water management, including release of tailings ponds water by the oilsands sector.”
Industry downplays concerns
Greg Stringham of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers said the only interest he’s aware of involves water in tailings ponds at the end of a mine’s life.
“We’re going to have extra water left over that needs to be treated and processed and put back into the environment in some sense. We’ve started talking about how that will happen at the end of the mine life.
“There’s no current request to release anything in place.”
That’s small comfort, said Stewart. He points out that the reason the tailings ponds have been such an intractable problem is because it’s so difficult to get impurities such as salts and heavy metals out of the water. Stewart notes:
[quote]The problem they’ve had is that they can’t get the stuff out of the water and they’ve been trying for 40 years. For 40 years we’ve been hearing we’re just about to solve this problem and we haven’t.[/quote]
Not only is the cleanup proving difficult, it’s also expensive, Stewart said. He fears industry is lobbying government to allow it to release some level of process-affected water back into the environment.
Stringham said any released water would meet government standards.
“What we’re looking at is the water that would be liberated from tailings during the reclamation process that would then be treated to meet all the environmental criteria, and then put back into the environment.”
Booth suggested Alberta is approaching the idea with caution.
“More work is needed on treatment technology and science,” she said. “If potential technology is developed that may allow for tailings water to be released into the natural environment, then it may be something government would consider at that time.”
Newfoundland’s Gros Morne National Park (Newfoundland and Labrador Tourism)
ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – An oil exploration company that set off intense debate with plans to frack near Gros Morne National Park in western Newfoundland says it will lose its licence next month to drill wells near the UNESCO world heritage site.
CEO Mark Jarvis of Shoal Point Energy Ltd. (CNSX:SPE) said his company’s bid to extend one of three exploration licences it holds in the province was rejected Dec. 5 by the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board.
The company said the decision means his company will lose the licence as of Jan. 15 as well as a $1-million deposit made last January for a one-year extension on drilling exploration wells.
“We are disappointed by this decision,” Jarvis said in a statement Thursday.
Shoal Point Energy and Black Spruce Exploration, a subsidiary of Foothills Capital Corp., had proposed to hunt for oil in shale rock layers in enclaves surrounded by the park using hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking.
The process involves pumping water, nitrogen, sand and chemical additives at high pressure to fracture shale rock formations and allow gas or oil to flow through well bores to the surface.
The prospect of drilling in the Green Point shale near the picturesque park raised alarms about groundwater pollution and other risks.
In a statement issued Friday the offshore board said it considered and rejected three separate proposals from the company for a one-year extension to its exploration licence.
The board said in making its decision it considered that the licence was issued based on conventional exploration work and that eight years had passed with minimal exploration undertaken.
It said the company’s proposal did not identify a plan to proceed with the drilling obligation on the licence and instead identified “a physical and legal impossibility to undertake a drilling program” in the only format now under consideration.
The board also said the company did not incorporate a forfeiture of its drilling deposit for not meeting the obligations of the licence to date.
Shoal Point Energy said it was willing to give up more than half of the approximately 202 hectares covered by the licence if the board approved the extension, including the portion neighbouring Gros Morne.
The company said it was also prepared to make an additional drilling deposit of $250,000, but the board denied both requests.
Jarvis said the Vancouver-based company felt its application respected the importance of the park.
“Our proposal balanced a desire to protect this unique and beautiful park with a desire to safely and responsibly develop a much-needed economic opportunity on the west coast of Newfoundland,” he said.
In total, the company’s three licences cover approximately 291 hectares in western Newfoundland.
“We still have a very large prospective resource to explore and develop in our remaining exploration licences,” said Jarvis. “We believe that the majority of people in this area want economic opportunity, as long as they are satisfied that operations are safe and respect the environment.”
BC Hydro’s proposed Site C Dam (artist’s rendering)
by Dene Moore, Canadian Press
FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. – The province of Alberta is concerned that a multibillion-dollar hydroelectric dam proposed in northeastern British Columbia could increase mercury levels in fish and escalate the risk of floods or drought along the Peace River that flows through its province.
Alberta’s Environment and Sustainable Resource Development, which manages lands, forests, fish and wildlife in the province, has filed a 23-page submission setting out its concerns to the panel reviewing the massive project.
Two existing dams on the Peace River in B.C. have already significantly altered the flow of the river into the neighbouring province, the Alberta submission said, and this has both positive and negative impacts in Alberta.
“Alberta is concerned that Site C will further exacerbate the negative impacts,” said the document filed Nov. 29.
The Site C dam would flood an 83-kilometre stretch of the Peace River from approximately Fort St. John to just upstream of Hudson’s Hope. It would be the third dam on the river, downstream from the W.A.C. Bennett and Peace Canyon dams.
The two existing dams already lower the river’s natural flow from May to late July, and increase flow from mid-October to mid-April. There are benefits to the flow regulation from BC Hydro, such as a reduced risk of flooding, but there are also risks, Alberta said.
Among those risks is an expected increase in methylmercury levels in fish during construction of the dam.
“Alberta acknowledges that BC Hydro expects increases in MeHg levels in fish populations downstream of the Alberta-B.C. border to be temporary and within fish consumption guidelines,” the submission said.
“However, it is unclear whether Albertans are aware of this increase, the amount of the increase, and the duration of the impact.”
The Alberta government requested ongoing information from BC Hydro to enable the province to inform fishermen on the Peace River of changes to methylmercury levels in fish until concentrations return to pre-construction levels.
Water flow, temperature changes
The impact of the dam on managing ice-related flooding and concern about minimum flow rates during construction were also singled out as concerns. Reduced peak flow affects the aquatic ecosystem on the Peace River, the Peace-Athabaska delta and other riparian wetlands, the document said.
Water fluctuations also cause mortality to fish and eggs by stranding, or indirectly through increased stress on fish, the report said.
There are also concerns about changes Site C will cause in water temperature downstream from the dam and reservoir, making the Peace River slower to warm in spring and slower to cool in summer.
“Such changes to water temperatures, though slight, may impact the current distribution and range of cold and cool water fish species within Alberta causing potential declines in some species and increases in others,” the report said. “Temperature changes may also impact the timing of ice freeze-up and break-up events.”
That could result in changes to spawning runs, in egg incubation rates and access to spawning habitat, the submission stated.
Dam could restrict fishing opportunities for Albertans
The province is also concerned about the flow of fish in the river. According to the report:
[quote]Upstream and downstream movement of fish populations is necessary for gene flow and hence long term resiliency in those populations, as well as to allow access to spawning, rearing, feeding, and overwintering areas.[/quote]
BC Hydro has told the neighbouring province that it is exploring options for fish passage, but as yet, “Site C could result in more restrictive fishing opportunities for species Albertans value more highly in the Peace River.”
Parks Canada raises issues with Site C
Parks Canada has also expressed concern about the cumulative effects another B.C. hydroelectric dam could have downstream, on Wood Buffalo National Park and the Peace Athabasca Delta.
The federal agency said the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation, Fort Chipewyan Métis Association, Little Red River Cree Nation and Mikisew Cree First Nation share those concerns. The Athabasca Cree, Dene Tha’, Mikisew Cree and Deninu Kue First Nations, as well as the Metis Nation of Alberta Region 6, have registered to appear before the panel.
“It is Parks Canada’s view that assessment of the operational phase of Site C must include consideration of the impacts of sustained, ongoing operations of all three Peace River dams managed by BC Hydro to ensure adequate assessment and consideration of the cumulative effects of flow regulation,” Parks Canada wrote to the panel.
ACFN Chief Allan Adam outside an Alberta court in 2012, challenging Shell’s Jackpine development
Shell Canada’s Jackpine oilsands mine expansion plan has received the go-ahead from Ottawa, despite the environment minister’s view that it’s “likely to cause significant adverse environmental effects.”
In a statement late Friday, environment Minister Leona Aglukkaq concluded that the effects from the 100,000-barrel-per-day expansion are “justified in the circumstances.”
The nearby Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation has said the project will violate several federal laws covering fisheries and species at risk, as well as treaty rights.
They said they had received so little information on how Shell plans to live up to conditions imposed on it by a federal-provincial panel that they asked Ottawa for a 90-day delay on the decision — originally expected Nov. 6 — to work some of those issues through.
They were granted a 35-day delay, but Friday’s decision didn’t even wait until that period was up.
Allan Adam, chief of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation, was outraged that the federal decision came as the government was still supposed to be in talks with the band about how the project’s effects were to be mitigated, declaring:
[quote]They just kept us in the loop and strung us along and played games with us. To them it’s all a game.[/quote]
Although all 88 conditions the review panel placed on the project are now legally binding, Adam said neither the government nor the company has explained how those conditions will be met.
Adam said the government’s move to go ahead despite the serious environmental consequences of the project leave the band little choice.
“This government has to realize we’ll be holding them accountable,” he said. “We’ll be looking at legal action and we’ll pursue this through legal action.”
Greenpeace Canada issued a statement accusing the Harper government of putting the short term interests of oil companies ahead of environmental protection and First Nations treaty rights.
“Canada would be much better off diversifying its economy, investing in renewables, green jobs and projects that get us out of this madness not deeper into it,” the statement said.
[quote]How many more extreme weather events will it take till our Prime Minister realizes this is one problem he can’t mine his way out of?[/quote]
The Jackpine expansion would allow Shell to increase its bitumen output by 50 per cent to 300,000 barrels a day.
“We’re reviewing the recommendations and proposed conditions attached to the approval,” said Shell spokesman David Williams.
Williams added Shell must consult with the minority partners in the project — Chevron and Marathon — before making a formal decision to proceed.
A review panel concluded last July that the project was in the public interest but warned that it would result in severe and irreversible damage so great that new protected areas should be created to compensate.
The review concluded that the project would mean the permanent loss of thousands of hectares of wetlands, which would harm migratory birds, caribou and other wildlife and wipe out traditional plants used for generations. It also said Shell’s plans for mitigation are unproven and warned that some impacts would probably approach levels that the environment couldn’t support.
Shell has said Alberta’s new management plan for the oilsands area will provide more concrete data to assess and mitigate environmental impacts. The company has purchased about 730 hectares of former cattle pasture in northwestern Alberta to help compensate for the 8,500 hectares of wetland that would be forever lost.
In October, a protest near Rexton turned violent when police enforced a court-ordered injunction to halt the blockade of a compound used by SWN Resources to store equipment.
SWN Resources, a wholly owned subsidiary of U.S.-based Southwestern Energy Company, was recently granted another injunction that provides a buffer zone around its equipment in order to complete its work.
Ocean acidification affects shell growth for marine life (Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme)
Research conducted at an ice camp high in the frozen North – part of the Catlin Arctic Survey – suggests climate change is threatening the Arctic Ocean’s food web by making those waters more acidic.
The scientists, who camped for months at a time on the sea ice near the magnetic North Pole, tested the effect of various acid levels on tiny, shrimp-like creatures called copepods (KOH-peh-pods) that almost all fish and whales depend on for food.
They found that some copepods do better than others in more acidic waters.
But their recently published research concludes that all the species they looked at suffered at some point in water with lower pH.
Carbon dioxide, the main gas responsible for climate change, increases the acidity of the oceans as it dissolves in seawater.
The Arctic Ocean is becoming more acidic at a faster pace than any other on Earth.
The paper was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) and was carried out by the University of Exeter and the Plymouth Marine Laboratory.
WASHINGTON – A former Harper government appointee used a keynote speech at a Washington event Monday to trample Canadian authorities’ message on oil pipelines while describing the country as an environmental “rogue state.”
Mark Jaccard became one of the first people nominated by the Conservatives to the environmental file when he was named in 2006 to the federal government’s now-defunct National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy.
Seven years later, the environmental economist delivered a lengthy rebuke of Canada’s climate-change performance at Monday’s event while the Obama administration grapples with whether to approve the Alberta-U.S. pipeline.
Jaccard, an adviser to different governments and a professor at B.C.’s Simon Fraser University, said he doesn’t want the oilsands shut down — he just doesn’t want them to grow. Said Jaccard:
[quote]On climate, Canada is a rogue state. It’s accelerating the global tragedy … The U.S. government should reject Keystone XL and explain to the Canadian government that it hopes to join with Canada (on a global climate plan).[/quote]
Jaccard was the headline speaker at a summit tied to a well-connected Democratic donor, the so-called “green billionaire” Tom Steyer, and attended by a number of U.S. media outlets.
Jaccard has become an increasingly bitter critic of the federal government. He was even arrested last year after joining a blockade on a train carrying U.S. coal from B.C.
His disenchantment with the Conservative government reached a boil after the 2011 election, Jaccard said in an interview after his speech.
He said he tried to work with the government — not only at the Round Table, but as an adviser to then-environment minister Rona Ambrose. But after the Conservatives won a majority in 2011, the rhetoric hardened, the Round Table vanished and it became clear they had no interest in tackling climate change, Jaccard said.
“In 2011, the gloves came off.”
In his career as an author, academic, and adviser to different governments since the Mulroney era, Jaccard also criticized the Liberals for a climate approach he still derides as a “labels-on-fridges-and-Rick-Mercer-ads” strategy to encourage behaviour changes.
More drastic policies are in order, he told his audience: greenhouse-gas emissions need to drop 50 to 75 per cent by 2050 to limit temperature growth to a 2C target — an impossible task with a growing oilpatch, Jaccard said.
The event, and the choice of location, were designed to arm-twist the Obama administration as it faces its Keystone dilemma.
It was held in Georgetown, where President Barack Obama delivered a speech in June saying Keystone would not be approved if it significantly increases greenhouse-gas emissions.
The title of the event was, “Can Keystone Pass The President’s Climate Test?” One speaker after another suggested that, no, Keystone cannot be approved without a significant increase in carbon pollution as a result.
In the hallways, the many Obama supporters speculated about when the long-awaited decision might come down. And some suggested they’ve become increasingly hopeful the project will be blocked, given Obama’s choice of words.
Former Michigan governor Jennifer Granholm even allowed herself to daydream about what an eventual presidential rejection speech might sound like. A decision is expected in early 2014.
“I think he could deliver a speech that could give him a legacy he would be proud of,” Granholm, the event moderator, said from the stage.
Earlier, Steyer described Keystone as a logical investment for the oil industry that would drive up the value of Canadian oil and ramp up development — which is precisely why he believes it shouldn’t be allowed to proceed.
“(Keystone) is a literal and a figurative line in the sands,” Steyer said. “Keystone is the economic key to unlocking the tarsands and, as such, it fails the president’s test.”
The other side of the Keystone debate was not represented at the event. TransCanada boss Russ Girling (TSX:TRP) and Gary Doer, Canada’s ambassador to the U.S., both declined to attend.
The company said Monday it has filed the request with the Federal Court in Vancouver to comply with a 30-day time limit.
Taseko has objected to parts of the assessment, saying the panel based its conclusions on faulty information — failing to account for a design feature intended to prevent seepage of contaminant material from a tailings storage facility. Said the company:
[quote]Taseko is asking the court for a declaration that certain panel findings relating to seepage and water quality be set aside, and that the panel failed in certain respects to comply with principles of procedural fairness[/quote]
The Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency has said it is reviewing information provided by Taseko.
Last month, an agency panel released a report saying it didn’t believe Taseko’s design for the project could avoid contaminating nearby Fish Lake. The survival of the lake is at the centre of the dispute.
The assessment found the project would have “significant adverse environmental effects” on water quality, fish and fish habitat in the lake, on grizzly habitat and on First Nations traditional activities.
The final decision on allowing the mine to proceed is in the hands of federal Environment Minister Leona Aglukkaq.
The review is a second attempt by the company to have the project approved.
The proposed mine has already been rejected once after an earlier assessment because the company proposed using the lake as the tailings pond.
“Taseko had no choice but to file this application in order to comply with a 30-day time limit,” Taseko president and CEO Russell Hallbauer said.
[quote]But we remain of the view that the federal government should allow the project to proceed to the next stage of detailed permit-level examination and if so the judicial review would not need to proceed.[/quote]
