Study underway into tailings ponds

Jeremy Loome, May 30, 2008, Edmonton Sun -- The province doesn't have information to prove it knows the Athabasca River is unaffected by tailing ponds leakage from the oilsands, an opposition critic claimed yesterday.

But Dr. David Swann said he expects an independent water comparison of oilsands river water from a pristine source, to be completed this fall, to settle the issue. It follows a report showing a Suncor pond has leaked up to five million litres per day into groundwater under it.

Environment Minister Rob Renner conceded yesterday in the legislature that the province has not completely mapped groundwater movement between the area under the ponds and the river.

But he reiterated that water quality studies show the river is unaffected, and the minister said he'll table in the legislature the province's studies into the issue.

It comes after assurances by the environment minister earlier this week that most of the groundwater is being contained and reclaimed in a lining between the aquifers leading to the river and the pond.

The province should've mapped the groundwater long ago, said Swann. If, as Suncor's report suggests, some of the water is making it into the river, he said, independent testing later this year will prove it.

Whether the government will place as much faith in those tests as Swann remains to be seen.

They're being conducted by Dr. Kevin Timoney, a local biologist who has already studied the water quality and found concentrations of heavy metals and arsenic at levels he says could cause cancer clusters claimed by residents of the downstream Fort Chipewyan First Nation, about 960 km north of Edmonton.

That report was rejected by the province.

"Kevin Timoney says the answer will come out in October, when he has finished comparing a virgin river going through the oilsands and its content with the water near the ponds, and its content of arsenic, mercury and polyhydrocarbons," said Swann.

"It should settle the issue once and for all."