- Additional Authors
- Description
- 1 online resource (56 p.) : ill., map, charts, digital file.
- Summary
- The pace and scale of oil sands mining continues to increase in Alberta despite a poor understanding of the environmental liabilities: costs associated with the environmental impacts throughout the life of a mine. In Toxic Liability, the Pembina Institute has compiled the first public estimate of these liabilities. Over their 30 to 50 years of operation, oil sands mines have had significant environmental impacts, including emissions of greenhouse gases and other pollutants, surface water withdrawals, contamination and disruption of groundwater, toxic seepage from tailings lakes into groundwater, habitat fragmentation and impacts on wildlife. To mitigate some of these impacts, oil sands mining companies are required to reclaim the land that has been disturbed during the mining process. Companies budget to pay for reclamation, which is supposed to occur as a company develops a mine. The cleanup bill for mines is potentially immense. Alberta requires all oil sands mine operators to post a security deposit to fund reclamation in the event an operator is unable or unwilling to pay for reclamation. However, because of the lack of transparency about the true costs of reclamation, the public doesn't know whether or not the current security deposits are adequate.
- Series Statement
- Oil sands fever series
- Uniform Title
- Toxic liability (Online)
- Oil sands fever series.
- Canadian Electronic Library. Documents collection.
- Canadian Electronic Library. Canadian publishers collection.
- Canadian Electronic Library. Canadian public policy collection.
- Alternative Title
- Toxic liability (Online)
- Subject
- Note
- "September 2010."
- Issued as part of the Canadian Electronic Library, Documents collection, and Canadian public policy collection.
- Bibliography (note)
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 49-56).
- Access (note)
- Access restricted to authorized users.
- Additional Formats (note)
- Also available in PDF format for downloading
- System Details (note)
- Mode of access: World Wide Web.
- Contents
- 1. Introduction -- Canada's oil sands -- Oil sands environmental liabilities -- Oil sands mine reclamation -- Reclamation securities and risk -- Past taxpayer-funded reclamations -- Sydney's Tar Ponds, Nova Scotia -- Faro Mine, Yukon Territory -- Giant Mine, Northwest Territories -- About this report --
- 2. Current security deposit policies -- About security deposit policies -- What if a mine cannot pay -- Benefits of current security policies -- Annual estimate updates -- Increasing security collected -- Discretionary language -- Challenges of current security policies -- Narrow definition of environmental liability -- Absence of transparency -- Poor access to government information -- Lack of industry estimates -- Lack of accounting safeguards -- Growing public concern -- Underestimated liabilities -- Recent mine financial security policy developments --
- 3. Asset retirement obligations -- Benefits of asset retirement obligations -- Longer-term perspective -- Financial incentive to minimize environmental liabilities -- More transparent calculation methodology -- Limitations of asset retirement obligations -- Uncertainty over new ARO standards -- Significant underestimation of reclamation costs -- Failure to disaggregate AROs --
- 4. Estimates of current liabilities -- Government of Alberta estimates -- Industry estimates -- Pembina Institute estimates --
- 5. Conclusion and recommendations -- Transparency -- Widen policy consultation -- Improve information availability -- Create accounting safeguards -- Sufficiency of liability estimates --
- Appendix A: Reclamation security calculations -- Appendix B: 2009 Oil sands securities -- Endnotes.
- OCLC
- ssj0001032691
- Author
Lemphers, Nathan.
- Title
Toxic liability [electronic resource] : how Albertans could end up paying for oil sands mine reclamation / Nathan Lemphers, Simon Dyer, Jennifer Grant.
- Imprint
Drayton Valley, Alta. : Pembina Institute, 2010 (Saint-Lazare, Quebec : Canadian Electronic Library, 2010).
- Series
Oil sands fever series
Oil sands fever series.
Canadian Electronic Library. Documents collection.
Canadian Electronic Library. Canadian publishers collection.
Canadian Electronic Library. Canadian public policy collection.
- Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (p. 49-56).
- Access
Access restricted to authorized users.
- Additional Formats
Also available in PDF format for downloading: http://celarc.ca/cppc/224/224872.pdf
- System Details
Mode of access: World Wide Web.
- Connect to:
- Added Author
Dyer, Simon.
Grant, Jennifer.
Pembina Institute for Appropriate Development.
Canadian Electronic Library (Firm)