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		<title>Conservation news</title>
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		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
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	<title>Alberta environmental news</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/alberta/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>A year after toxic tar sands spill, questions remain for affected First Nation</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/a-year-after-toxic-tar-sands-spill-questions-remain-for-affected-first-nation/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/a-year-after-toxic-tar-sands-spill-questions-remain-for-affected-first-nation/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Jul 2024 15:02:22 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ruth Kamnitzer]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/07/12151916/3-Tar-sands-developments-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=284297</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples and Conservation and Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Alberta, Canada, and North America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Air Pollution, Conflict, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Fossil Fuels, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Industry, Land Conflict, Mining, Oil, Oil Sands, Politics, Pollution, Social Justice, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Living downstream from one of the world’s largest industrial projects isn&#8217;t easy — especially when things go wrong. When the community of Fort Chipewyan in Alberta, Canada, learned there had been a major spill of toxic wastewater from Imperial Oil’s Kearl tar sands site, it was chaos, says Melaine Dene, acting director of the Mikisew [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Living downstream from one of the world’s largest industrial projects isn&#8217;t easy — especially when things go wrong. When the community of Fort Chipewyan in Alberta, Canada, learned there had been a major spill of toxic wastewater from Imperial Oil’s Kearl tar sands site, it was chaos, says Melaine Dene, acting director of the Mikisew Cree First Nation’s department of government and industry relations. The remote community of nearly 800 mostly Indigenous people, better known simply as Fort Chip, sits on the southwest shore of Lake Athabasca, about 250 kilometers (155 miles) downriver from the oil sands, a sprawling industrial complex of open-pit mines, smokestacks and tailings ponds in the boreal forest. In January 2023, 5.3 million liters (1.4 million gallons) of toxic water filled with mining waste, or tailings, overflowed from one of the drainage ditches at the Imperial facility. But the public didn’t learn of the spill until days later, when the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER), the provincial agency that oversees energy development, posted an environmental protection order (EPO) on its website. And the EPO came with another shocking surprise: a second drainage ditch had been seeping toxic wastewater into groundwater for at least nine months. Neither AER nor Imperial Oil directly notified Indigenous leadership about the spill or the ongoing leakage. Fort Chipewyan draws its drinking water from Lake Athabasca, and when news broke, people feared the waterbody was contaminated, Dene says. Her first priority was to make sure the community had safe drinking water. In winter,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/a-year-after-toxic-tar-sands-spill-questions-remain-for-affected-first-nation/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-284297</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Canada oil sands air pollution 20-64 times worse than industry says: Study</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/canada-oil-sands-air-pollution-20-64-times-worse-than-industry-says-study/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/canada-oil-sands-air-pollution-20-64-times-worse-than-industry-says-study/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 May 2024 14:26:33 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ruth Kamnitzer]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/05/16132218/1-Oil-refinery-smokestacks-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=282190</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Alberta, Canada, and North America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Air Pollution, Conflict, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Fossil Fuels, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Industry, Land Conflict, Mining, Oil, Oil Sands, Politics, Pollution, Social Justice, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Air pollution levels over Alberta’s tar sands are many times higher than industry-reported figures, according to researchers, raising questions over potential health risks to downwind Indigenous communities.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[For years, Indigenous communities living near Canada’s oil sands have worried about the health impacts of the cloud of air pollution rising from the vast industrial mining complex. A recent study shows the problem is far worse than previously thought, with air pollution levels from oil sands operations up to 64 times higher than that reported by industry. Canada’s oil sands are the fourth-largest oil deposit on Earth and among the most energy-intensive to access and process. Buried beneath the boreal forest of northern Alberta, bitumen is a thick, heavy tar-like form of petroleum that coats subsurface sand. It is extracted using both open-pit and in-situ mining, which involves pumping steam underground. Current production is 3.3 million barrels per day. Typically, companies operating in the oil sands calculate air pollution levels using a “bottom-up” approach as required by law — estimating emissions generated at each step of the petrochemical extraction process, including, for example, contaminants rising from smokestacks, heavy machinery and other sources, then adding those figures together to come up with the total emissions. But the 2024 study finds that those methods, while they may be legal, are woefully inaccurate. Using specialized aircraft-based sensors, researchers from Environment and Climate Change Canada (the federal department responsible for coordinating environmental policies and programs), and Yale University took real time measurements and determined that oil sand operations are emitting between 20 and 64 times more air pollution than previously reported. Oil refineries along the Athabasca River in Alberta’s oil sands. Air pollution&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/canada-oil-sands-air-pollution-20-64-times-worse-than-industry-says-study/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/canada-oil-sands-air-pollution-20-64-times-worse-than-industry-says-study/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-282190</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Oil pipeline on Native lands ramps up as Canada honors its Indigenous people</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/09/oil-pipeline-on-native-lands-ramps-up-as-canada-honors-its-indigenous-people/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/09/oil-pipeline-on-native-lands-ramps-up-as-canada-honors-its-indigenous-people/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Sep 2021 10:40:13 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
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					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=247691</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples and Conservation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Alberta, Canada, Minnesota, North America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Conservation, Environment, Environmental Law, Ethics, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Reserves, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Rights, Oil, Oil Drilling, Oil Spills, Politics, Pollution, Rivers, Social Justice, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Canadian oil company Enbridge is just hours away from completing its thousand-mile pipeline from Alberta through north Minnesota to Wisconsin, with oil set to flow the day after Canada’s first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. Almost five years after initially receiving approval from Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to carry the thick tar sands [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Canadian oil company Enbridge is just hours away from completing its thousand-mile pipeline from Alberta through north Minnesota to Wisconsin, with oil set to flow the day after Canada’s first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. Almost five years after initially receiving approval from Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to carry the thick tar sands oil, the Line 3 pipeline zigzags between Indigenous Anishinaabe reserves in the northeastern U.S. and crosses over hundreds of biodiverse wetlands and wild rice beds. The new “substantially complete” pipeline runs 1,765 kilometers (1,097 miles) and continues to face protests and criticism on both sides of the border, as appeals and lawsuits from Indigenous, environmental and climate action groups were heard and declined over the years. “Line 3 is a crime against the environment and Indigenous rights, waters and lands,” said Winona LaDuke, executive director of Indigenous rights organization Honor the Earth. “Enbridge has raced to build this line before the Federal court has passed judgment on our appeals about the line.” The new pipeline is a replacement for the previous Line 3, built in 1961 and operating today with severe corrosion anomalies and at reduced pressure. The old pipeline was built and operated by Lakehead Pipeline Co., one of Enbridge’s previous corporate incarnations, and was the source of the largest inland oil spill in U.S. history. In that incident, in 1991, 7.7 million liters (1.7 million gallons) of oil spilled into the Prairie River in Grand Rapids, Minnesota. The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission has yet to&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/09/oil-pipeline-on-native-lands-ramps-up-as-canada-honors-its-indigenous-people/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-247691</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Protected areas best conserve mammalian diversity when connected with corridors, biologged weasels show</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/09/protected-areas-best-conserve-mammalian-diversity-when-connected-with-corridors-biologged-weasels-show/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/09/protected-areas-best-conserve-mammalian-diversity-when-connected-with-corridors-biologged-weasels-show/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Sep 2019 19:12:31 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Emi Kusayanagi]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sue Palminteri]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2019/09/04185555/Fisher-cropped-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=222166</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Alberta and Canada]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Forests, GPS, Mammals, Mapping, Monitoring, Protected Areas, Research, Technology, Temperate Forests, Tracking, Wildlife Corridors, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In a recently published  study, Canadian researchers monitored the fine-scale movements of GPS-tagged fishers (Pekania pennanti), a member of the weasel family, across a terrain of over 700 protected areas (PAs) in Alberta, Canada. They found that corridors of natural structurally intact habitat may be just as critical as the protected areas themselves for conserving [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In a recently published  study, Canadian researchers monitored the fine-scale movements of GPS-tagged fishers (Pekania pennanti), a member of the weasel family, across a terrain of over 700 protected areas (PAs) in Alberta, Canada. They found that corridors of natural structurally intact habitat may be just as critical as the protected areas themselves for conserving forest-dwelling mammals. Connectivity over quantity In the face of climate change and loss of natural vegetation, increasing public awareness over the accelerated rate of global species extinction has compelled governments in more than 240 countries to dramatically increase the number of protected areas over the last 20 years. According to a report by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), there are over 200,000 terrestrial protected areas around the world being governed on a national level as of 2016. But a majority of those PAs exist in increasingly patchy, fragmented networks within an ever-expanding human-dominated landscape. This is bad news for the animals these reserves are meant to protect. Examples of two wildlife movement theories: (above) The stepping stone theory predicts that patches of disconnected habitats best facilitate the movement of species within a network of protected areas. Image by José Luiz Viana do Couto, Rede Agronomia. (below) The corridor theory suggests that habitat “bridges” that are structurally intact best facilitate species movement between protected areas. Image by Laury Cullen Jr,  CC BY-SA 4.0. Research has shown that individual animals across more than 50 species move shorter distances in fragmented habitats; such changes in movement behavior may negatively&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/09/protected-areas-best-conserve-mammalian-diversity-when-connected-with-corridors-biologged-weasels-show/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-222166</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>River supplying Alberta oil sands operations with water at risk from drought</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2015/09/river-supplying-alberta-oil-sands-operations-with-water-at-risk-from-drought/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2015/09/river-supplying-alberta-oil-sands-operations-with-water-at-risk-from-drought/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Sep 2015 03:59:41 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mike Gaworecki]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mike Gaworecki]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2015/09/03162019/Syncrude_mildred_lake_plant-440x330.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Alberta and Canada]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Natural Gas, Oil, Oil Sands, Rivers, Tar Sands, and Water]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A new study casts doubt on the long-term ability of the Athabasca River to supply the water Alberta’s oil sands industry relies on. Water is allocated to oil sands operations based on river flow data collected since the 1950s, but that doesn’t necessarily represent an accurate assessment of the Athabasca River’s flow variability over the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A new study casts doubt on the long-term ability of the Athabasca River to supply the water Alberta’s oil sands industry relies on. Water is allocated to oil sands operations based on river flow data collected since the 1950s, but that doesn’t necessarily represent an accurate assessment of the Athabasca River’s flow variability over the longer term, according to a report published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Development of Alberta’s oil sands, the world’s third-largest crude oil reserve at an estimated 168 billion barrels, uses a lot of fresh water — more than 3 barrels of water to every barrel of oil produced. Currently, the oil sands industry is allocated 4.4% of the mean annual flow of the Athabasca River to meet that demand. In 2010, the oil and gas industry accounted for 74.5 percent of total surface water allocations in the Athabasca River Basin, the report says. That allocation takes into account seasonal fluctuation, but not long-term climatic variability and change, the authors of the report write — even though the region has a history of droughts and future droughts are likely, suggesting the industry&#8217;s water use might be unsustainable. Syncrude&#8217;s Mildred Lake oil sands operation in Alberta, Canada. Photo via Wikimedia Commons. Researchers from the University of Regina and the University of Western Ontario, both in Canada, analyzed the measured river flow record for the Athabasca River Basin while accounting for the effects of climate oscillations that can confound attempts to spot&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2015/09/river-supplying-alberta-oil-sands-operations-with-water-at-risk-from-drought/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-140200</doi>				</item>
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