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ENVIRONMENT: Pembina wants environmental plans ahead of bitumen upgrading expansion
        (AlbertaIndex, June 23, Monday) --- Strict environmental and infrastructure plans must be completed and implemented before Alberta approves any more bitumen upgrading projects, said the environmental group Pembina Institute.
        In a report on the environmental impacts of upgrading oil sands bitumen in the Edmonton region, Pembina said the industry is planning nine massive industrial plants just east of the city. The report provides an assessment of the cumulative environmental impacts of the 10-fold expansion of upgrading capacity, which will convert bitumen into synthetic crude oil for export to the US markets.

The report said the new industrial plants will consume about 10 times as much fresh water as the entire city of Edmonton, require twice as much natural gas as is used to heat all the households in the city, use more electricity than is produced by the entire EPCOR Genesee coal-fired power facility, equivalent to the electricity needed to power all the homes in Alberta, increase emissions of major air pollutants by 30-40%, even with government caps, and produce about 45 megatonnes of greenhouse gases per year, as much as would be produced by 10 million vehicles.

“Many people do not yet realize the scale and pace of development that will transform agricultural land and natural areas into an industrial complex about three-quarters the size of Edmonton,” said Dr Mary Griffiths, senior policy analyst with the Pembina Institute and lead author of the report, Upgrader Alley: Oil Sands Fever Strikes Edmonton.

“In the Edmonton area, the government of Alberta has the opportunity to avoid the environmental and social problems being experienced in Fort McMurray. Through proper and proactive planning those mistakes can be avoided, but to do this right requires a pause on new upgrader approvals.”

Work on the Capital Region Integrated Growth Management Plan, which includes the ‘Upgrader Alley’, is only just starting, and a plan will not be in place for over a year.

Alberta Environment has initiated the Cumulative Effects Management Framework to limit impacts on land, air and water, but it intends to continue approving new upgrader projects prior to environmental limits being fully implemented. In addition, projects could be approved without any requirement to deploy carbon capture and storage technology, despite the government’s proposed reliance on this technology in its most recent climate change strategy, released earlier this year.

“With careful planning, it may be possible to reduce the impact on the North Saskatchewan River and emissions to the air, but environmental limits and infrastructure need to be in place before the projects are built,” said Simon Dyer, Oil Sands Program Director with the Pembina Institute.

“How much new development can the region and the North Saskatchewan River sustain? These critical questions need to be answered before the government grants approvals for new upgrader projects. We need to take the time to do it right.”

Local municipalities have already rezoned agricultural land and natural areas to create a 530-sq-km region called Alberta’s Industrial Heartland, which is where Upgrader Alley will be located. The heartland is three-quarters the size of the city of Edmonton.

Nine bitumen upgraders are expected to be operating in Upgrader Alley between 2015 and 2020. When all stages are complete they will have the capacity to upgrader approximately two million barrels of bitumen a day. An upgrader looks similar to an oil refinery, like those sited along the North Saskatchewan River northeast of Edmonton.

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