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Oil sands application threatens Canadian Heritage River designation
Media Releases | Water Matters | July 08, 2010
> Bait and switch application could mean 17,000 cubic meters per day from
> Alberta’s Clearwater river not accounted for in original ERCB approval
> would be lost to SAGD and chemical processes.
>
> An application to Alberta Environment by Nexen Inc. for a water licence
> would be the first to enable the diversion of water from a designated
> Canadian Heritage River, the Clearwater River in north eastern Alberta, for
> unrecoverable use in oil sands upgrading and steam assisted gravity
> drainage (SAGD) for the Nexen Long Lake Project. Public notice of the
> application was placed in Alberta papers this week.
>
> “This is a real test for Alberta Environment,” says Ruth Kleinbub, a member
> of the Clearwater Heritage River Society that helped designate the
> Clearwater River , “The Clearwater was been nominated and designated as a
> Canadian Heritage River by Canadians, with the support of the Alberta
> government. As such, protective measures should ensure the river’s
> outstanding natural, cultural, and recreational values are maintained.
> Nexen’s application threatens the Clearwater’s Heritage status and will
> limit options for the protection of the river in the future.”
>
> Nexen’s application for fresh water also completely contradicts the
> conditions of the original approval of the Long Lake Project by Alberta’s
> Energy Resources Conservation Board. For its original application, Nexen
> stated in their environmental impact assessment that the project would “not
> use any water from the river or lakes in the area,” but would use “saline
> water from deep wells that is not suitable for human consumption for making
> the steam used for bitumen recovery.”
>
> “Nexen has pulled a bait and switch. They got approvals from the ERCB on
> the condition of explicitly not using surface water and here we are a few
> years later and they are looking for 17,000 cubic metres per day from a
> heritage river,” notes Cleo Reece, co-chair of Keepers of the Athabasca,
> and member of the Fort McMurray First Nation, “Alberta environment needs to
> turn down the application because Nexen is telling one story to get its
> initial approval and a different one to allow it to get out of its original
> promises.”
>
> “We need to protect and preserve the water,” Reece adds, “the sacred gift we
> have been given, not only as a treaty right but as our responsibility for
> the future of the generations yet unborn”.
>
> “There is a lot of talk nationally and internationally about the province
> re-establishing credibility on oil sands,” says Joe Obad, Associate
> Director of Water Matters. “Instead of taking out ads in Washington, the
> province would do better to back up its regulators here at home and reject
> Nexen’s bait and switch. By turning down this application, Alberta
> Environment can meet its commitment to safeguard a Heritage River and send
> a strong message to industry: avoiding public scrutiny of true
> environmental impacts and switching stories between regulators won’t be
> tolerated in Alberta.”
>
> Notice was placed in Alberta papers this week for the Nexen application.
> Albertans have 30 days (until August 5th) to place statements of concern
> with Alberta Environment.
>
>
> STATEMENTS OF CONCERN MAY BE SENT TO:
>
> Alberta Environment
> Regulatory Approvals Centre
> 9th Floor, Oxbridge Place
> 9820 – 106 Street
> Edmonton, Alberta T5K 2J6
>
> Telephone: 780-427-6311
> Fax: 780-422-0154
>
> Please quote file number: 00267465
> (Application Numbers: 001-00267465 and 001-00267466)
>
>
> FURTHER INFORMATION MAY BE REQUESTED FROM:
>
> Sachin Bhardwaj, Nexen Inc.
> 801 – 7th Avenue
> Calgary, Alberta
> T2P 3P7
>
> Phone: 403-699-6261
> Fax: 403-513-5569
> Sachin_Bhardwaj@nexeninc.com
>
>
> FOR INTERVIEWS PLEASE CONTACT:
>
> Joe Obad
> Water Matters
> joe@water-matters.org
> (403) 585-5826
>
> Ruth Kleinbub
> Clearwater Heritage River Society
> Ruthkleinbub@gmail.com
> (780) 799-3680
>
> Cleo Reese
> Keepers of the Athabasca
> cleo_re@hotmail.com
> (780) 381-8799
>
>
> BACKGROUND:
>
> Clearwater River as a Canadian Heritage River
>
> * The Nexen application will be the first for an oil sands operation
> seeking to use a Canadian Heritage River as a water source for SAGD and
> upgrader uses.
>
> * Local citizens champion the Canadian Heritage Rivers program to promote,
> protect, and enhance Canadian Heritage Rivers. Volunteers, partners, and
> communities submit applications to nominate and designate Canadian Heritage
> Rivers based upon “outstanding natural, cultural and/or recreational
> values, a high level of public support, and that sufficient measures will
> be put in place to ensure that those values will be maintained.“1
>
> * The licence could threaten its Canadian Heritage Status.
>
>
> Nexen Application
>
> * Nexen is asking for more freshwater to use for upgrading, but because
> upgrading is integrated with SAGD, more “recovered” water goes to SAGD.
>
> * Nexen plans to withdraw an average of 17 000 cubic meters of water per
> day, up to a maximum of 25 000 cubic meters per day or a total of 6,205,000
> cubic metres (m3) per year.
>
> * This water would be used for SAG-D injection and upgrading. In SAGD, not
> all water is lost to deep water aquifers. In upgrading, water is converted
> through chemical processes. There will be a net loss of water to the river.
>
>
> Clearwater River Information
>
> * The Clearwater River contributes almost 20% or 1/5 of the water that goes
> into the Athabasca River (19.2% of the mean annual flow)
>
> * February has the lowest average flow2
>
>
> Low Flows and Critical Periods
>
> * The proposed increase in withdrawals from Clearwater River by 17,000
> m3/day represents a 800% average increase in daily or annual withdrawals
> from the river over existing allocations
>
> * The design of the intake is 77,000 m3/day, and intended to allow
> expansion3
>
> * Athabasca River basin has no Water Conservation Objective or water
> management plan, and if Alberta Environment approves of this application,
> it will impair Alberta’s ability to protect this River
>
>
> SOURCES:
>
> 1. Canadian Heritage River System, Canadian Heritage River System-About Us,
> website., http://www.chrs.ca/About_e.htm (accessed May 13, 2010).
>
> 2. Nexen Inc, Long Lake Source Water Project, April 2010, Application to
> Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Transport Canada, and Alberta Environment,
> (Calgary, AB: Nexen, 2010), p.6.; HYDAT data, Water Survey Canada.
>
> 3. Nexen, 2010 p.13
Tagged with: water matters, alberta environment, clearwater river
