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Canada’s environment commissioner has issued an incendiary report attacking the federal government’s inability to monitor the country’s water resources.
In his report, Scott Vaughan lambasted Environment Canada, the federal department tasked with safeguarding lakes and rivers, for “not adequately monitoring the quality and quantity of Canada’s surface water resources.”
He also noted that the department’s monitoring of Alberta’s oilsands and its effects on the Athabasca River is “insufficient.”
Environment Canada’s sole long-term water quality monitoring station on the river sits 150 kilometres downstream from oilsands projects and checks only for the effects of pulp and paper production.
Vaughan added the monitoring program has no baseline measurements or long-term data to track changes in the river’s water quality and aquatic ecosystem health associated with oilsands projects.
The Alberta government and oilsands industry have long maintained that chemicals found in the river are naturally occurring.
Jennifer Grant, oilsands program director for the Pembina Institute, isn’t surprised by the report’s findings, saying it echoes previous warnings made by the commissioner.
“Based on the commissioner’s findings, the federal government doesn’t actually have a good understanding of the impacts of oilsands development on water quality and quantity,” she says.
From Fast Forward Weekly