Jackpine Mine will destroy wetlands and wildlife
The largest known reservoir of crude bitumen in the world is about to get even bigger, but Alice Rigney is in no mood to celebrate.
Rigney was raised in Northern Alberta on the Athabasca River that now runs directly through multiple oil sands projects.
"That river is our lifeline and has been for thousands of years. It has always sustained us with fish, food, water and travel – everything,” said Rigney.
Rigney grew up watching traditional hunting, fishing and trapping grounds transform into what she now calls the tar sands. She is now part of an Athabasca Chipewyan First Nations (ACFN) Elders council, fighting those developments.
“If they destroy that, what will become of us? Are we going to become refugees on our own land? Where am I going to go?”
Conservation area, compensation lake planned
Now Shell Canada has the green light from the federal government to expand its 7,500 hectare Jackpine Mine to 13,000 hectares.
Shell said it could bring the Alberta and federal governments an estimated $17 billion in royalties and taxes over its life and create an additional 750 full time jobs.
But Indigenous and environmental groups say the predicted damage to water, land and animals outweighs any profits the addition to the oil sands will yield.
Shell's assessment projects that 185,872 hectares of wetlands in the area will be lost or altered as a result of the Jackpine Mine expansion and other industrial activity.
In order to mitigate impacts, the company has purchased about 730 hectares of former cattle pasture in northwestern Alberta to help compensate for 8,500 hectares of wetland that would be lost just from the expansion.
Shell has also drafted plans to move caribou and wood bison to a conservation offset zone. They also plan to create a compensation lake complete with fish and fauna in order to further mitigate impacts on wetlands and wildlife.
Jackpine Mine will destroy wetlands and wildlife
