For decades, successive conservative governments in Alberta have promised that technology will address the massive environmental threat posed by toxic oilsands mine wastewater stored in tailings ponds near Fort McMurray, now so large they are more than twice the size of Vancouver.
On June 12, Alberta’s Environment Ministry released a report by its government-appointed Oilsands Mine Water Steering Committee. One of the committee’s five major policy recommendations was to consider allowing companies to inject untreated wastewater deep underground, “once all other options have been fully explored.”
This recommendation would have come as no surprise to Calgary-based Aqua Solutions Inc. The oilsands infrastructure company wants to use its deep-well injection technology to store billions of litres of mine wastewater underground.
Nor would it surprise environmentalists, academics and others who have long complained about the intertwined, conflict-laden relationship between the oilsands industry and the Alberta government.
Once you do this, you can never ever unpollute your water table.
Oh but hey, “technology” in the future will solve this!
We’ve been hearing that about climate change for decades at this point, why suffer now when maybe we can force future generations to shit out a technological diamond or suffer for us!
Material science is good but not magic, at some point we need to acknowledge addressing the sources of problems which were can totally address today is better than being on someone else using magic.