Alberta officials are signalling they have no idea how to clean up toxic oilsands tailings ponds
The toxic waste of the Canadian oilpatch has been quietly spreading in the boreal forest since bitumen mining began near Fort McMurray in Northern Alberta in the 1960s.
The mix of clay, water, toxic acids, metals and leftover bitumen has sprawled in artificial ponds to cover an area twice the size of the city of Vancouver.“It’s biologically and chemically an impossible fantasy,” said David Schindler, a renowned freshwater scientist and officer of the Order of Canada, when asked about Alberta's plan to clean up oilsands tailings #PriceofOil #oilsands #abpoli #cdnpoliMore than one trillion litres of the goop, called tailings, fill these man-made waste lakes that can be seen from space. An equivalent amount of water would take five days to tumble over Niagara Falls.
The contaminated tailings ponds attract and kill migrating birds. They emit methane and other greenhouse gases.
Despite years of public promises from officials that the tailings ponds would shrink and go away, they are growing. And in the meantime, troubling gaps are opening in the oversight system meant to ensure the oilpatch cleans up its mess. Alberta has collected only $1 billion from companies to help remediate tailings— a problem that is now estimated to cost about 100 times that.
https://www.nationalobserver.com/2018/11/23/news/alberta-officials-are-signalling-they-have-no-idea-how-clean-toxic-oilsands-tailings
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POOR STUPID CLIFFIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
He is not reading the news PROPERLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
What it comes down to is that DEAD BROKE Alberta DOES NOT HAVE THE MONEY to do any sort of real cleanup!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
LIE-berals and their less intelligent cousins of NDP are IGNORING the massive deficits and debts being run up in Alberta!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It is the usual LIE-beral socialist CRAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
LIE-berals made HUGE- long term promises to civil service union Hogs- based on expected SHORT TERM PROFITS from various industries that are now DYING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Industries such as auto making, and oil production and the failure to develop new mining options in Northern Ontari-owe because of LIE-beral failure to fully "consult" with natives!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Miners wanted a road into the so called Ring of Fire but LIE-berals only wanted to build a railway so they could control the entry of hunters and fishermen- thus protecting native hunting a fishing rights!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And is it not amusing how many times our hands are being tied due either to massive debts that we owe to Hogs- so much debt that we cannot afford anything else...............like new public transit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And so many COSTLY promises to drunken natives as well..............
natives demand jobs- and then BLOCK ANYTHING that might create jobs in their area!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And just to make sure that natives remain jobless- they refuse to attend school- UNLESS they have a can of gas and matches- to BURN THE PLACE DOWN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Consider this insurance problem- in light of the recent arson in Iqualuit that destroyed half the winter food supply:
Here is an article illustrating the utterly dysfunctional life in a typical native town. With some comments of my own brackets):
6 Nunavut schools are uninsurable because of past arsons
cbc.ca By Nick Murray
Nanook School in Iqaluit's satellite community of Apex is one of six uninsurable schools in Nunavut since its value is lower than the government's $20 million deductible.
Six schools in Nunavut are uninsurable because of the territory's sky-high insurance deductible, thanks to a pair of school arsons over the past few years.
According to Nunavut's Finance Department, the lone schools in the communities of Chesterfield Inlet, Whale Cove and Resolute Bay are valued at less than the government's $20 million deductible for property insurance . Two schools in Iqaluit and the elementary school in Gjoa Haven are also uninsurable. The department said the government doesn't pay insurance premiums on those six schools.
A deductible is the amount of money that the government has to pay out of pocket before the insurance company will reimburse any remaining value of the schools.
The government's insurance deductible rose to $10 million after Cape Dorset's Peter Pitseolak School was destroyed by arson in 2016 — at the time, the school was under-insured by $17 million .
The insurance company raised the deductible again in 2017 to $20 million after Kugaardjuq School in Kugaaruk burned down .
"Any school that's been burnt, and hopefully that will never happen, will have to be replaced through our appropriations. If they're valued at under $20 million, then we have to pay for the full amount," Finance Minister David Akeeagok told CBC News in March.
(This is not the first time that arsonists have played havoc with facilities in native communities! The tv show W-5 created by Eric Malling- now deceased- made quite a stir nearly 30 years ago detailing the series of arson`s on reserves- with multiple houses going up in smoke. Malling also exposed systemic corruption on reserves- in one case natives won govt funding to build a sawmill to harvest timber from their reserve land- after the mill was built it sat un-used for years and then was burned by arsonists- without ever cutting a single piece of wood- burned along with the majority of houses on the reserve beside the mill! Insurance companies have good reason to shun policies for natives!)
(IN another case two prisoners died in jail from a fire they had deliberately set in their own cells after being arrested for being drunk and disorderly! Sadly-the jail was home built and each cell was locked with padlocks- cops did not have time to find the right keys needed to release prisoners before fire engulfed the jail! To make matters worse- news media noted that a year AFTER the inquest into the deaths of the two men had ended- a prefabricated jail that had been supplied by govt was still laying ROTTING on the dock where it had been delivered- without the band bothering to assemble it!)
"For liabilities it's huge. With the amount of incidents that's taken place, we're trying to promote that people should [refrain] from doing these unnecessary incidents."
(No kidding! It is understandable that natives might not like white people much but the ugly reality is that natives are their own worst enemies! Violence, drug abuse and corruption are endemic on reserves! To make matters worse, LIE-berals have decided that condemning the gross corruption might lose them votes so they are going out of their way to pretend nothing is wrong!)
'We need to do more': MLA
Akeeagok said the government is doing what it can to mitigate arson potential at schools across Nunavut, including closing off access under buildings and installing security cameras in every school.
Specifically in Cape Dorset, the government hired a private company to provide 24-hour security services to protect Sam Pudlat Elementary School, according to documents obtained by CBC through Access to Information.
The government hired the security company after there were five arson attempts from the time Peter Pitseolak High School burned down in September 2015, to when the tender was ordered in December 2016.
Iqaluit-Tasiluk MLA George Hickes raised the issue in the Legislature mid-March, asking Minister Akeeagok what implications there would be with the territory's insurance provider if another school goes up in flames.
Akeeagok responded that the government needs to show insurance companies it's doing a better job of protecting schools.
(Screw the hopeless pursuit of insurance for schools! Clearly the priority now is surveillance and the arrest and punishment of aspiring arsonists!)
"We need to remind all of our students and all of the public that schools, health centres, garages are all of the public's buildings, and they are there to serve the public," Akeeagok said at the time.
(This is NOT a job for LIE-berals- they are far too busy telling white people we are all systemic racists and Islamophobes! LIE-berals are buying native votes by encouraging them to think they are victims of white racists instead of simply being to often violence prone, ill educated and drug addicted, with attitude problems!)
Speaking with CBC News Monday, Hickes said there's more the government can do to prevent schools from being intentionally burned down.
"There needs to be more diligence," Hickes said, pointing to a recent arson attempt in Iqaluit, and a break-in and vandalism of a school in Baker Lake in April.
"Thankfully those people who broke into the Baker Lake school didn't start a fire ... We need to do more from a security standpoint."
Arsons have wide-reaching impact
In a statement, Nunavut's Department of Finance said it's prepared if another school were to go up in flames, but said it will put a strain on other areas of funding programs and services.
(No kidding? The repeated loss of buildings in such isolated places where everything must be flown or trucked in from suppliers usually located thousands of miles away would strain any budget- especially in a communities where unemployment is routinely over 80 percent!)
"In the event of another school fire, the GN will be able to handle the costs of rebuilding a school, but this reduces funds available for other important programs and buildings. School fires have serious impacts on the GN's overall ability to deliver the programs and services Nunavummiut expect," the department said.
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"Also of concern, another school fire would have significant negative impacts on the GN's ability to purchase affordable property insurance for schools in the future."
The department said the government sets aside a contingency fund every year in its budget — $40 million in 2017/18 — which the government uses to cover emergencies and other unforeseen events like school fires, but also to introduce or expand new programs or infrastructure needs over the year.
(The arson at northern schools is symptomatic of a much larger problem! One has only to look at northern housing stocks to see that very few have waterproof siding installed and this allows them to deteriorate swiftly from water damage! We KNOW govt ships prefab housing to reserves- with the housing arriving ready to assemble and the packing crates contain everything from concrete foundation material to roofing supplies- so WHERE is the waterproof siding? WHY is it so often NOT INSTALLED? Shall we ask if natives sold it for BEER MONEY? And the related question is this: “why do LIE-berals seem not to care about this corruption and waste”?)