Oil sands: Reclamation of land has a long way to go

Thanks to oil-sands mining, a new species has blossomed in northern Alberta's delicate ecosystem: the robot hawk.

After oil is extracted from the sand, the remaining dirt and water end up in huge tailings ponds with oily surfaces.

There, mine operator Albian Sands Energy has installed radar-activated mechanical peregrine falcons that flap their wings and screech to scare off approaching birds, which would drown if their feathers were soaked with oil.

It's one of the ways oil companies show they care about the region's fragile environment — but it doesn't appease environmentalists, who say the industry is doing too little to offset the massive disruption.

The current approach to oil-sands mining "epitomizes unsustainable development," said Simon Dyer, of the Pembina Institute, a Canadian environmental think tank.

The operations divert large quantities of water from the Athabasca River; it takes 2-½ to 4 barrels of water to produce one barrel of bitumen oil, the institute said.

Pembina also said it's uncertain whether residual chemicals from the waste ponds will filter into groundwater and endanger surrounding areas.

In 2006, a local doctor warned about abnormally high rates of cancer in Fort Chipewyan, a tiny town 185 miles north of Fort McMurray on Lake Athabasca. When the province's health officials reviewed available statistics, they concluded that cancer there was no more frequent than elsewhere.

The Alberta Cancer Board is doing a more in-depth study, and the results will be published in the next couple of months, an Alberta Health spokesman said.

Much of the landscape north of Fort McMurray has been mined beyond recognition. Dyer said reclamation — restoring the land to something like its original state — is proceeding at a "glacial pace."

Of the nearly 200 square miles where oil has been mined, the Alberta government has certified as fully reclaimed only one chunk, less than one-half square mile. That parcel is full of spruce trees and shrubs, disturbed only by hiking trails and sculptures — the first officially reclaimed area in 41 years of oil-sands mining.

It lies atop a hill created by dirt scraped away to reach the Syncrude mine's valuable oil deposits.

In other areas being reclaimed, Syncrude is trying to re-create wetlands, and even plays hosts to a wood-buffalo herd.

Syncrude, the area's second-oldest mining operation, said it has reclaimed 22 percent of the land it has disrupted but hasn't requested government certification for it all because the land would revert to public use — a safety risk when near mining operations.

Overall, about 12 percent of the land disrupted by oil-sands producers is "in various stages of reclamation," said Alberta Environment spokeswoman Kim Capstick.

Steve Gaudet, Syncrude's environmental manager, said the reclamation process is "serious for us — it's big bucks and a big activity."

Ángel González: 206-515-5644 or agonzalez@seattletimes.com