H2oil

When the war in Iraq began

the price of oil soared,

Oil was discovered in Canada.

Everyone knew it was there.

But it became a part of

the global reserve.

It is considered

as the greatest oil deposit

in the world today.

These are the tar sands.

Digging the bitumen

out of the ground

and converting it into synthetic

crude is a monumental challenge.

It requires huge capital

highly sophisticated technology

and thousands of

skilled workers.

In short, it is a great enterprise

comparable to the construction

pyramids

or the Great Wall

China only bigger.

This is the biggest

unsustainable development

on the planet.

I am very proud to see

a dynamic and growing

economy in Alberta

that benefits all of Canada.

I will not put

that at risk.

I will not put

the oil sands at risk.

I really do feel

hurt in some way

that we are selling

out our land

for industry

and economic growth.

Like I said last night,

economic development,

and economic boom,

is going to be

a great economic disaster,

and the destruction of our land

and our people.

Alberta is located

on one of the largest

recoverable oil fields

in the world

second only to Saudi Arabia.

Stretching over 149 000 km

an area larger than England,

it contains at least 175 billion

barrels of bitumen

found in the boreal forest,

Slough and rivers.

To access

this sandy tar-like substance

the land which the industry calls

overburden

is removed and stored

to be retrieved later.

Cranes and 400 ton trucks

transport the bitumen

to the extraction plants

where in order to separate

the sand from the bitumen

It is mixed with large amounts of

fresh water heated by natural gas.

It is then spun

with a chemical solvent

to remove clay

and minerals,

leaving the wastewater

to be dumped

into enormous toxic

settling ponds.

The bitumen is then sent

into pipelines

to be processed into crude oil

throughout North America.

Fort Chip is unique

in politics

because of the two First

Nations and Mtis group

that are here in Fort Chip.

Our ancestors have lived here

for thousands of years.

We consider this region

as our homeland.

And Fort Chipewyan

is also our homeland.

The community of Fort Chip

receives all the pollution

that is thrown into the river.

The government will say: "Ah!

We have consultedwith you! "

No, you never did.

Industry consulted with us.

It is a third party.

We're talking about land,

water, air. Everything.

Let's be very clear.

Alberta will not close the door

to future investments.

We want to create a

environment and economy

that are virbant

and that we can leave

to our children and our grandchildren.

The bitumen buried

in the boreal forest of Alberta

is being mined from surface.

To access the bitumen,

whole forests are cut down

and the top soil is scraped away,

transforming a once lush region

into a vast moonscape.

At some point,

something will go wrong

and people will

have to move away from here

for their own good.

Compensation.

Is that going to help?

For what?

For whom?

Right now as we speak,

my brother

has cancer, colon cancer.

So...

What is making people

Fort Chipewyan sick?

The people there believe they know:

Pollution from the oil sands.

According to a study by a

oil companies

there could be 400

times more arsenic

than the legal limit

in moose meat,

which causes cancer.

People suspected something

was wrong

because of the number of

relatives dying of cancer.

I do not know when we wil get the results

but I hope it will be soon.

If my mother has to undergo chemo

and radiotherapy,

I'm staying at home, working 8 Hours,

I'm going to Edmonton with her.

My cancer did bother

me for a long time.

I thought, my God,

I have cancer!

Sh*t, Cancer! I was just 17.

I am a good person.

I did not deserve to have

cancer is 17 years old,

be told that I can not have children.

You know?

I can not say

it's because of the water or air

or vegetables that grow here.

My mother has a vegetable garden

behind the house.

I can not say

it's because of that,

but something tells me that yes,

it is.

It began to dawn on me

that something was wrong.

But we are on the ground here

and sometimes

you can't the wood for the trees.

So we're going

to get cases of

colon cancer,

prostate, lung.

Then we had some...

blood

related issues in

the form of leukemia.

Cholangiocarcinoma,

There were three cases in 1200.

According to statistics,

it should be 1 in 100 000.

When we realize

what the community

is exposed to

from the south and east of here

and there is a direct correlation

between these chemicals

and the types of

cancers that exist here.

My gut feeling says,

there has to be a link

between industry

and what is happening here.

Since the invasion of Iraq,

or the price of oil

soared,

the leading provider

Oil U.S.

is not Saudi Arabia,

or Mexico.

This is Canada.

It is clear that the war in Iraq

creates winners and losers.

If there had not been

a war in Iraq

there would not have been

a massive boom.in Alberta.

by the oil sands industry

is released into huge

artificial lagoons.

One of these ponds

covers 16 km square.

According to scientists,

a significant breach

may cause

ecological disaster

than the oil spill of the Exxon Valdez.

Settling ponds

contain a mixture

of contaminated water

by processing bitumen.

It may well contain

of aromatic hydrocarbons,

heavy metals such as arsenic,

mercury,

cadmium, zinc, iron,

naphthenic acids, etc..

There is an incredible variety

of organic compounds

present in the bitumen,

that eventually gets

into the settling ponds

and into the air.

Every tailings pond

in the sand reagion leaks.

Every tank leaks

every day, 24 hours a day.

The best studied tailings pond

is the Tar Island - Pond 1

and that is situated

at the worst place

on the banks of the river,

It leaks 67 liters of

toxic tailing water per second.

Draining 67 liters

into the river every second.

That is only one tailings pond

and thats is one of the less toxic.

In the middle 80's,

There was an environmental assessment

of the seepage management of that dam

And the Great Canadian Oil Sands,

Suncor, was obliged

to collect all the fluids

escaping from the drains

and put it back in the ponds.

However,

there are still some leaks

flowing into the river.

Only tens of

liter per second,

but it is closely monitored

to determine the impact

on fish

and small invertebrates.

No impact was detected.

But I think it

is the biggest problem

connected to the seepage

in the river today.

There were a couple here

who died last winter..

The wife died of cancer,

and the man didnt want to live.

He died in February

and she died in October.

We came here on the rocks.

We took a hook

and a long pole,

and we caught

what we call link cod.

There was a lot.

We were fishing 50 to 100 per night.

We have already done enough

harm nature.

Leave her alone...

It's hard for me to accept

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