www.garthlenz.com Canada has acheived significant reductions in its mercury emissions in the last 40 years. However, while Ontario has now moved to the final stages of phasing out its coal-burning plants, eliminating mercury emissions from those plants, Alberta's tar sands are reportedly "wafting" mercury in an area that extends to about 19,000 square kilometres.
A report prepared by federal scientists at Environment Canada (the same scientists the Harper government has attempted to silence) found that mercury is "the number one concern" when it comes to the metal toxins generated by tar sands operations. The report also documents the first observation of methyl mercury in snow; this is significant because methyl mercury is bioavailable, and accumulates inside the organisms that consume it.
We recently reported that Canada had signed a global treaty to reduce mercury emissions called the Minamata Convention. If Canada follows through on ratifying the treaty, will this help curb mercury emissions from the tar sands?
Will the Minamata Convention control mercury releases from the tar sands?
The tar sands are not specifically dealt with under the Convention, so they would fall under Article 9, which addresses releases from point sources of mercury. The Convention does not set emissions reductions targets for these point sources. Rather, it requires that the parties take measures to control and, where feasible, reduce releases of mercury and mercury compounds.
The measures must include one or more of the following, as appropriate:
(a) Release limit values to control and, where feasible, reduce releases from relevant sources;
(b) The use of best available techniques and best environmental practices to control releases from relevant sources;
(c) A multi-pollutant control strategy that would deliver co-benefits for control of mercury releases;
(d) Alternative measures to reduce releases from relevant sources.
The Parties are also required to establish an inventory of releases from relevant sources.
These provisions leave a lot of discretion to the parties as to what actions they will take.
The Minamata Convention also contains a voluntary provision, encouraging parties to take steps to identify and protect populations at risk of exposure to mercury (Article 16).
Other localized impacts of the tar sands
We most often think of the tar sands as a source of greenhouse gas emissions, but it is also important to remember their significant local impacts, in addition to mercury deposition, including:
- Increased Polycyclic aromatic compounds in the Athabasca river and its tributaries;
- Habitat destruction and fragmentation by surface mining and tailings ponds;
- Depletion of water resources;
- Impacts to human and environmental health; and
- (See "History of environmental contamination by oil sands", by Peter V. Hodson, Professor at Queen's University, as published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America)
- Significant impacts on the Boreal forest.
Final thoughts
Canada pulled out of the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, arguably in part to protect the tar sands from greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets. We hope that it sticks with the Minamata Convention, and implements both the mandatory and voluntary measures set out in the Convention, to protect the health of both the people and the ecosystems downwind of the tar sands developments.
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