A United Nations body that monitors some of the world’s greatest natural glories is back in Canada to assess government responses to ongoing threats to the country’s largest national park, including plans to release treated oil sands tailings into your basin.
In a series of meetings beginning Thursday, UNESCO researchers will determine whether Wood Buffalo National Park should be placed on the list of World Heritage Sites in Danger, a move the agency has already deemed “likely.”
“Canada is not complying,” said Melody Lepine of the Mikisew Cree First Nation, who first brought concerns about the northern Alberta park to UNESCO’s attention.
Larger than Switzerland, Wood Buffalo is one of the world’s largest freshwater deltas and is rich in biodiversity, including nesting sites for endangered whooping cranes. Its labyrinth of wetlands, rivers, lakes and grasslands is the largest and most intact ecosystem of its kind in North America.
But the park, which straddles Alberta and the Northwest Territories, is slowly drying out due to a combination of climate change and upstream developments like British Columbia’s Site C Dam. In addition, research has found increasing evidence of tar sands tailings pond seepage into groundwater and surface water upstream.
In 2017, UNESCO found that 15 of the park’s 17 ecological landmarks were deteriorating and provided Canada with a list of improvements needed for the park to retain its status. This week’s meetings are to assess federal and provincial responses.
A report prepared for Mikisew by scientific consultant Carla Davidson credits the province for establishing buffer zones around the park and Ottawa for water management plans within the park. But the document finds that little else has been done.
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A risk assessment for tar sands tailings ponds has not begun, the report says. No sites have been identified in the oil sands region used by whooping cranes.
First Nations proposals to address knowledge gaps have been rejected. There are no land use plans.
The report says provincial groups studying science issues have been given restrictive terms of reference.
#UNESCO team in #Alberta to judge if Wood Buffalo Park should go on the endangered species list. #WoodBuffaloPark #OilSandsTailingsPonds
For example, a group studying mine reclamation can only look at ways to treat and release effluents. Cultural impacts on local First Nations are not considered, nor are the cumulative effects of separate developments.
“So far, Alberta has refused to implement the majority of (the recommendations),” the report says. “Instead, we see many examples from Alberta that are based on the same policy instruments that have brought the park to where it is today.”
Meanwhile, both levels of government are preparing regulations to regulate the first discharges of tailings into the Athabasca River. Those rules are expected by 2025.
Contaminated water can be safely treated and released, says the Mining Association of Canada. In documents posted on its website, the association says tailings ponds can only be reclaimed after the water that fills them is removed.
“Oil sands operators have the proven processes in place to treat these (contaminants) to safe levels for release into the environment,” he says. “After decades of work in this area testing different methods with constant improvement as a goal, the industry is confident that the water can be safely treated and released into the environment once regulations are in place.”
But Gillian Chow-Fraser of the Canadian Wildlife and Parks Society said neither the industry nor the government had considered other ways to deal with the tailings, such as pumping the water underground.
“(Treat and release) is not really a recovery solution,” he said. “It’s a cheap and easy way for these companies to keep producing at the same rate.”
Alberta Environment spokeswoman Carla Jones said the effluent is a long way from entering the Athabasca River.
“Treated oil sands mine waters that have been in contact with bitumen will not be released until we can definitively demonstrate, using rigorous science, that it can be done safely and that strict regulatory processes are in place to ensure human health is protected.” and ecological,” he wrote in an email.
If UNESCO places Wood Buffalo on its “Endangered” list, it would join 52 other sites around the world, most of which are endangered by war or civil unrest. It only has one other site from a G7 country: the Florida Everglades.
“Having a World Heritage site is something we’re supposed to be really proud of,” Chow-Fraser said. “This international acknowledgment that things are not as good as they seem here is not something to be proud of.”
Neither industry nor First Nations want permanent tailings ponds in the landscape, Lepine said. But addressing that problem and the general deterioration of Wood Buffalo cannot be done without more resources and a broader search for solutions.
“They’re not presenting a variety of options,” he said.
Lepine said a UNESCO move could galvanize Canadian governments into action.
“This site should appear on the “Endangered” list.
This report from The Canadian Press was first published on August 17, 2022.