Represas de residuos letales de la minería de arenas bituminosas de Canadá.
The Tar Sands’ Deadly Ponds
Pocos temas ilustrar mejor la naturaleza sucia de la producción de asfalto (bitumen), que las represas de residuos mineros tóxicos a lo largo del río Athabasca en el norte de Canadá.
Estas represas contienen ahora 187,000 millones de galones de lodo que contiene tóxicos químicos como fenoles, arsénico, mercurio, hidrocarburos aromáticos policíclicos cancerígenos y ácidos nafténicos letales para los peces.
Las represas no sólo representan pasivos de miles de millones de dólares para los inversores sino que también amenazan la calidad del agua en la 3° cuenca más grande del mundo, la cuenca del río Mackenzie. Su acumulación también confirma un verdadero estado de abandono de la reglamentación en materia de las arenas de alquitrán, el mayor proyecto de energía planetario y el proveedor número uno del petróleo de EE.UU.
El tamaño y la escala de las fugas y filtraciones de estos represamientos es sobrecogedor. Alrededor de una docena de estas “lagunas” se sitúan a unos 300 pies sobre el suelo y cubren 80 millas cuadradas de bosque boreal y humedales. Hasta hace poco, el Departamento del Interior de EE.UU. calificaba a la represa de relaves Syncrude, como la represa más grande del mundo en términos de volumen de material de construcción (706´320,000 yardas cúbicas). Ahora la represa “Tres Gargantas” de China tiene el record.
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Las arenas de alquitrán del Canada
Las arenas de alquitrán, conocidas también como arenas bituminosas, arenas de petróleo, arenas petrolíferas, arenas aceiteras y en Venezuela como petróleo crudo extra pesado, son una combinación de arcilla, arena, agua, y bitumen. De las arenas de alquitrán se extrae un bitumen similar al petróleo el cual es convertido en un petróleo crudo sintético o refinado directamente por refinerías especializadas para obtener productos del petróleo. El petróleo convencional es extraído por medio de pozos mientras que los depósitos de arenas bituminosas son extraídos usando técnicas de seccionamiento de minería superficial, o se les hace fluir hacia pozos por medio de técnicas in situ que reducen la viscosidad del bitumen por medio de vapor y/o solventes. En promedio, el bitumen contiene 83,2% de carbón, 10,4% de hidrógeno, 0,94% de oxígeno, 0,36% de nitrógeno y 4,8% de azufre.
Las arenas de alquitrán, conocidas también como arenas bituminosas, arenas de petróleo, arenas petrolíferas, arenas aceiteras y en Venezuela como petróleo crudo extra pesado, son una combinación de arcilla, arena, agua, y bitumen. De las arenas de alquitrán se extrae un bitumen similar al petróleo el cual es convertido en un petróleo crudo sintético o refinado directamente por refinerías especializadas para obtener productos del petróleo. El petróleo convencional es extraído por medio de pozos mientras que los depósitos de arenas bituminosas son extraídos usando técnicas de seccionamiento de minería superficial, o se les hace fluir hacia pozos por medio de técnicas in situ que reducen la viscosidad del bitumen por medio de vapor y/o solventes. En promedio, el bitumen contiene 83,2% de carbón, 10,4% de hidrógeno, 0,94% de oxígeno, 0,36% de nitrógeno y 4,8% de azufre.
Problemas Medioambientales
Como en toda explotación minera y en proyectos de desarrollo de recursos no renovables, las operaciones con arenas bituminosas tienen repercusiones sobre el medio ambiente. Los proyectos con arenas bituminosas tienen efectos sobre:
El terreno, cuando el betún inicialmente se acumula y con los grandes depósitos de productos químicos tóxicos;
El agua, durante el proceso de separación y con el drenaje de los ríos;
El aire, debido al lanzamiento de dióxido de carbono y de otras emisiones, así como la tala de árboles. Se generan efectos ambientales indirectos adicionales al quemar los productos petrolíferos producidos, lanzando dióxido de carbono a la atmósfera.
El agua, durante el proceso de separación y con el drenaje de los ríos;
El aire, debido al lanzamiento de dióxido de carbono y de otras emisiones, así como la tala de árboles. Se generan efectos ambientales indirectos adicionales al quemar los productos petrolíferos producidos, lanzando dióxido de carbono a la atmósfera.
Las tierras
Una gran parte de las operaciones de minería con arenas bituminosas implica la eliminación de los árboles y la vegetación de un sitio y quitar la “sobrecarga” – tierra vegetal, el muskeg, la arena, la arcilla y la grava – que se asienta encima del depósito de arenas bituminosas. Aproximadamente se necesitan dos toneladas de arenas bituminosas para producir un barril de petróleo (aprox. 1/8 de tonelada).
Una gran parte de las operaciones de minería con arenas bituminosas implica la eliminación de los árboles y la vegetación de un sitio y quitar la “sobrecarga” – tierra vegetal, el muskeg, la arena, la arcilla y la grava – que se asienta encima del depósito de arenas bituminosas. Aproximadamente se necesitan dos toneladas de arenas bituminosas para producir un barril de petróleo (aprox. 1/8 de tonelada).
El agua
Para producir cada unidad de volumen del petróleo crudo sintético se utilizan entre 2 y 4.5 unidades de volumen de agua. A pesar del reciclaje, casi toda esa agua termina en charcas negras.
Para producir cada unidad de volumen del petróleo crudo sintético se utilizan entre 2 y 4.5 unidades de volumen de agua. A pesar del reciclaje, casi toda esa agua termina en charcas negras.
El aire
El ácido sulfhídrico o sulfuro de hidrógeno es el compuesto químico con fórmula H2S. Este gas es descolorido, tóxico e inflamable y su olor es el de la materia orgánica en descomposición, como los huevos podridos. El gas de ácido sulfhídrico se genera de forma natural por petróleo crudo, gas natural, gases volcánicos y manantiales de aguas termales. También puede producirse por descomposición bacteriana de materia orgánica y por las basuras humanas y los animales.
El ácido sulfhídrico o sulfuro de hidrógeno es el compuesto químico con fórmula H2S. Este gas es descolorido, tóxico e inflamable y su olor es el de la materia orgánica en descomposición, como los huevos podridos. El gas de ácido sulfhídrico se genera de forma natural por petróleo crudo, gas natural, gases volcánicos y manantiales de aguas termales. También puede producirse por descomposición bacteriana de materia orgánica y por las basuras humanas y los animales.
The Tar Sands’ Deadly Ponds
by Andrew Nikiforuk
Canadian author Andrew Nikiforuk’s latest book, Tar Sands: Dirty Oil and the Future of a Continent, investigates the threats and viability of the Alberta tar sands. Download a free copy of the book for a limited time at www.dmpibooks.com/pdf/tar-sands.
Few issues illustrate the dirty nature of bitumen production better than growing lakes of toxic mining waste along the Athabasca River in northern Canada.
These industry-made impoundments now contain 187 billion gallons of sludge that includes phenols, arsenic, mercury, cancer-makers such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and fish-killing naphthenic acids.
The dams not only pose multibillion-dollar liabilities for investors but also threaten water quality in the world’s third largest watershed, the Mackenzie River Basin. Their determined accumulation also confirms a genuine state of regulatory neglect in the tar sands, the world’s largest energy project and number one supplier of U.S. oil.
The size and scale of these leaking ponds are striking. About a dozen “ponds” rise 300 feet above the ground and cover 80 square miles of boreal forest and wetlands. Until recently, the U.S. Department of the Interior rated Syncrude’s Tailing Dam as the world’s largest dam in terms of volume of construction material (706,320,000 cubic yards). Now China’s Three Gorges Dam holds the title.
Almost all the dikes in the tar sands are leaking, but the Alberta government does not report the volume of seepage. For more than 40 years, Suncor’s Tar Island dike directly spewed or leaked bitumen and chemicals into the Athabasca River.
Environmental Defense recently calculated that one billion gallons of tailings waste now leaches into groundwater or surface water every year. In a recent mining blog, Jack Caldwell, a crusty U.S. geotechnical engineer, didn’t think the U.S. EPA would tolerate such a situation. “But then Canada is a small country of rugged individuals living in a harsh climate.”
Migratory fowl often mistake these apocalyptic waters as safe havens and die coated in bitumen. Every year, about 7,000 ducks and geese perish in the ponds. When Syncrude forgot to set up its propane canons to scare off birds last year, more than 500 ducks drowned and made international headlines. It took Canadian regulators nearly a year to lay charges. (In real terms habitat destruction for boreal song birds by tar sands steam plants in situ projects poses a much more significant threat to wildlife.)
Dikes containing mining waste are among the world’s least reliable man-made structures. Extreme weather events, earthquakes and poor design can trigger a catastrophic collapse. A massive damcontaining coal ash, the residue of coal burning, broke last year in Tennessee spilling 129 million tons of waste containing arsenic, lead and mercury into two rivers. Both scientists and aboriginals fear that a breached tailing pond could poison water for 40,000 people and travel all the way to the Arctic Ocean.
Bad Engineering and Government Neglect
The accumulation of tar sands waste represents the product of bad engineering and government neglect. To separate sand and clay from bitumen, industry uses approximately 12 barrels of hot water mixed with caustic chemicals to produce one barrel of bitumen. In the process, approximately three barrels of contaminated water end up in tailings ponds. No one predicted that it might take hundreds of years for the clay to separate from the water.
Although industry recycles much of its dirty water, continuous recycling may well impede bitumen recovery and reclamation ofdam sites by raising salt content of the ponds by 75 miligrams per liter per year. According to a 2008 study in the Journal of Environmental Engineering and Science, high concentrations of sulfate, chloride and ammonia “have raised concerns about scaling and corrosion” as well as “chronic toxicity in reclaimed environments.” Nothing about bitumen production is pretty.
Industry and government have known about the sludge problem for a long time. A series of 1973 reports for Alberta Environment, An Environmental Study of the Athabasca Tar Sands, identified “these large open bodies of polluted water” as “the most disturbing aspect of mining in tar sands from an ecological as well as an aesthetic point of view.”
The studies described growing waste ponds as “the most imminent environmental constraint” to the industry because of the threat of dike failure, seepage and groundwater pollution. They recommended “an alternative solution,” because “The possibility for pollution of the surface waters will exist wherever impounding of liquid tailings is permitted.”
Twenty Years Passed and the Ponds Grew
In 1992 Syncrude’s environment manager Bruce Friesen lamented that “the ongoing accumulation of fluid fine tails by the oil sands industry has generated concerns for regulatory agencies, the general public and for the industry.” (Just one of Syncrude’s dike contains enough sludge to fill 160,000 Olympic sized swimming pools.) He also worried about “the potential for contamination of groundwater,” because many dikes have been built on top of underground sink holes.
A dike failure would cause “severe damage to buildings, vegetation and wild life,” Friesen wrote. He, too, fretted about the “initial toxicity of the tails.”
But the ponds continued to expand. In recent years, Canada’s National Energy Board described the impoundments as “daunting,” while the Alberta Chamber of Resources called them “a risk to the oil sands industry.” In a pastoral letter, the Catholic Bishop Luc Bouchard recently denounced the ponds as “a very long term threat to the region’s aquifers and the quality of the water in the Athabasca River.”
This year, the Alberta Energy Resources Conservation Board finally acted. After nearly 40 years of dithering, the board finally ordered companies to reduce wet tailings waste by 50 percent by 2013 and to switch to a dry tailings production method. As one scientist noted: “After riding a regulatory bicycle for so many years, it is interesting that the ERCB is now in a Ferrari with their foot to the floor.” He guessed the cleanup would have a significant cost and wondered if the board would enforce the new rules. No one has a good plan for the existing waste.
Last year, the U.S. Congressional Research Service took a hard look at tar sands deposits on the continent. It concluded that Canada’s environmental costs were so extreme with its “water requirements, toxic tailings” that similar projects in Utah and California “might not be a very attractive investment in the near term.”
Alberta’s Tar Sands Nighmare
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jan 11, 2011 – The new year has got off to a bang in Canada with the new Environment Minister Peter Kent coming out of his corner fighting. According to Kent, the Albertan oil sands are not the environmental catastrophe we all thought they were. In fact, as he says, the oil sands are “an ethical source of energy”. Yes, that’s right. Alberta is the new home of ethical oil. Oh boy, that’s going to need some explaining
DANGER: oil sands zones in Canada, dredging up the soil, is one of the most environmentally destructive forms of gaining energy.
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