A Sticky Situation

by

Sam Hoffman

 

At this moment, someone in Alberta is digging up large amounts of thick, black, sandy soil. The place I am describing is referred to as the “tar sands” of Canada where you will find large amounts of goopy tar sand.  To a kid this may sound fun to roll around in, but us grown-ups have found another use for it: oil.  Scientifically this sticky soil is called a bituminous deposit. Bituminous is essentially soil saturated with an extremely viscous form of petroleum. The bituminous deposits found in Alberta, Canada cover an area of 54,000 square mile and holds proven oil reserves of 1.75 trillion barrels. Recent world energy issues have led to exploration and exploitation of these deposits. The discovery of this new resource could be beneficial to the economy of Canada, but certainly has detrimental effects on the environment.

 Bituminous deposits, or “tar sands”, are considered an unconventional source of petroleum due to the fact that it does not come in a very pure form.  Because of the mixture of dense oil with soil and sand particles, the process of extracting pure oil becomes much more energy intensive.  You cannot simply stick a well in the ground and watch pure petroleum shoot out of it. The process becomes much more complicated, which involves widespread destruction of the landscape and to natural ecosystems as a whole.

Because the thick and very viscous oil and sand mixture hardly flows, wells cannot be made, therefore requiring the land to be stripped and excavated. Surface mining is the most efficient way to extract the oil deposits, but this means clearing and tearing up the land. This method of extraction damages, if not eliminates large areas of important wildlife habitat. Also due to the composition of the material taken from the ground, more energy must be used than conventional processes. Most of that energy comes from the burning of natural gas, which increases the amount of greenhouse gasses emitted.

Other environmental problems that arise from the tar sands affect the soil and water quality of the area. Deeper deposits of bituminous that cannot be strip mined must be pulled out by injecting steam and chemicals to push the material out. Some of the chemicals that are used can contaminate groundwater and local fisheries. Also, the waste tailings from strip mining are usually put into tailing ponds. These tailings in many cases contain toxic chemicals, contributing more to water contamination. Strip mining also destroys the soil structure that is important to maintain vegetation and the wildlife that live off of it. The tailings that are left behind are basically loose sandy soil, leaving a poor quality soil with little nutrients, preventing the ecosystem from rebounding from the disturbance.

Overall, the process of extracting petroleum from the tar sands is having a negative impact on the environment. As much as it could help the economic state of Canada, it is only a short term solution. Eventually these deposits will run out much like conventional oil deposits will. The negative impact of the destruction it has on the environment far outweighs the minor economic benefits that it brings. The great Canadian wilderness is disappearing because of human’s greed for a “better lifestyle.”