Alberta's dark age

[grassfarmer]

It seems Alberta is headed for another dark age - an environmental dark age. In the week where media are asking why a few hundred ducks died in a toxic Ft McMurray tailing pond (instead of asking why these tailing ponds are allowed to exist or if they are polluting the water sources and the atmosphere) The Environment minister announces that environmental impact assessments are no longer necessary for power line projects. How can any supposedly progressive, western country accept these scenarios as satisfactory in this day an age?
It seems in the lust for resource money the Alberta Government is happy to allow the province to turn into something resembling an eastern European, post communist environmental disaster zone.

[wilagro]

Yes, the AB government has become quite arrogant AGAIN. Ralphie was at times quite arrogant and now it is "steady Eddies" turn...besides, they have been safely re-elected, and now it is business as usual. Big business wants to SELL power to the USA and why should a handful of scraggly farmers impede their progress in placing transmission towers? The message is..."Get out of our way".

What also galls me is this steady pilgrimage to the USA with the pleading and begging for them to buy our "dirty" oil. Don't they get it? They don't need to make all this effort...the whole bloody world wants oil. What in heck are they scared of? A downturn in the millions of barrels of oil leaving this province every day, month, year. Seems to me that they want to strip this province of our resources as fast as they can.

[FarmRanger]

I wonder if I could have one of those tailings ponds installed next to my wheat swaths in the fall?
It would be easier than melting down a Chernobyl style nuclear reactor and a lot less devastating on the environment. (Is it possible to attract gophers to tailings ponds too?)

[wilagro]

The scare guns on the tailing ponds were apparently not activated early enough to prevent the ducks from landing.

The few ducks killed in that tailings pond are a drop in the bucket really. There is a huge overpopulation of geese, (especially whites), and some ducks, to the point where they have destoyed 1/3 of their nesting and feeding areas on the Arctic tundra. Nobody seems to be doing anything about that problem apparently.

[coppertop]

An excellent letter in the Edmonton Journal today referencing the uproar about the ducks, with the comment that there have been numerous human deaths on Highway 63 which is the road to McMurray, but the loss of human life didn't gain national attention !!
I think the key question is, that if the cannons weren't activiated what other conditions of operation, if any. have been neglected ???

[Burbert]

In our area, the mallard ducks have all but disappeared. In the past, during the Fall, vast numbers migrated through, feeding in grain fields, filling local wetlands. Are they extinct or has the flyway changed? More geese and cranes than ever? The general theory is the flyway has changed, but now I am beginning to think that the ducks are just gone, poisoned due to our modern environment! Who knows, since you can't trust the government any more!

[coppertop]

There are way more geese in this area than I have seen since we bought this place. Lots of wetlands for them to nest, but nothing much in the way of grain grown in this area.
There are a pair down at the beaver pond and they seem to have taken up residence there.

[blackjack]

seems to me the canada goose has taken over the sloughs from the ducks ...though last year there were several ducks nesting on sloughs out on the rangeland in east central alta... there was water everywhere last year...moving to central alta in my teenage years and being a avid hunter there seemed to be thousands of ducks that would migrate through thirty plus years ago

[Burbert]

Guess all the mallards have been nesting in Fort McMoney tarponds, and lagoons. So it is unlikely that we'll ever see them again. It is truly amazing how inept the Dept of Environment is in Alberta. We'll soon be up to our armpits in plastic bags and Mac D wrappers from the looks of things. Disgusting, dirty air, dirty water, dirty underground, polluted land. Guess we'll all have to move to BC1

[coppertop]

I think the duck issue was overblown, albeit there certainly was slackness on the part of the company.
As far as AB. Environment goes, I think the minister made the right decision not to bow to Greenpeace and the opposition and hold a public inquiry. Lord help us, if we allow Greenpeace to control the agenda for government.

[Burbert]

Lets get Newfoundland, to send Alberta some seal pups, you know the little White ones, so we can bash them over the head here too! In the meantime, we kin look for some really big, old trees, that have been round for a 100 years or so, and chop'em down. No wait lets go looking fer some neclear energy plants and ploop them down in central Alberta, er on a big clear riverbank somewere. Tarponds, waste lagoons they ain't enough. Lets build some more big ole powerlines cross Alberta farms and make the farmers pay to do it. Now take that Grenpeace and Dr. D. Suzuky. Ifen we want ta wreck our land, its our budness not yearn to stop uss!

[coppertop]

During the last storm our power was off three times, according to Fortis there were several pole fires which caused it. I questioned whether it was because the lines were taxed to the limit and didn't get an answer.
Suzuki is a joke, he is an extremely high paid spokesperson for environmental groups, and as far as Greenpeace goes, they must be getting paid to do what they do, because they seem to spend a lot of time doing it !
I am not sold on nuclear power, there sure seems to be a push to get a plant in the Whitecourt area by the local MLA and some local politicians.

[per]

I hit a duck with the windshield of my truck yesterday. It startled the quack out of me. I wonder what the ratio of ducks dead to GDP created is. That would make the duck I hit exponentially more tragic. We need not disregard the wild life but we also have to look at our own selves and how we interact with nature.

[coppertop]

I would suspect that a lot more than 500 deer are killed annually on our highways, yet there hasn't been an outcry about it !

I am not trying to minimize the issue with the ducks at Ft. Mac, but lets try and keep it all in perspective.

[cakadu]

You're right copper, we need to keep this in perspective and at the same time not dismiss it either. You're earlier point about what else is amiss up there is a valid one.

With keeping things in perspective, those tailings ponds are not getting any smaller, in fact they are increasing in size and will continue to do so as long as they are in a frenzy up there. We can't do anything about the ducks that were lost (begs the question as to how many birds and wildlife are affected on a yearly basis).

What we can look toward is how to prevent this in the future and more importantly what emergency preparedness is in place if (maybe even when) something more serious happens. Let's be realistic, there is huge potential for an environmental disaster with these tailings ponds, not to mention the challenges being encountered by folks who live in those areas.

What I believe is happening with the ducks is drawing attention to the potential for even greater problems. Notice I've referred to potential.

Maybe one day the technology will exist to be able to do something with the sludge, but for now we have to be proactive and diligent in our stewardship.