Home page

Text size

E-mail this page

NORTHWEST TERRITORIES
Environment Canada has provided more details on the NWT's role in a new monitoring plan for Alberta's oil sands development.

New monitoring sites in the NWT, including on the Slave River, will look for impacts from oil sands development in Alberta. - NNSL file photo

Monitoring stations for air, water and biodiversity will be located at Fort Smith, Hay River and Fort Resolution under the Joint Canada-Alberta Implementation Plan for Oil Sands Monitoring.

"Sites will gradually be phased-in and operational between now and 2015, with the timing dependent on the type of monitoring station," said Henry Lau, a spokesperson for Environment Canada in Ottawa, in an e-mail to News/North.

Hay River, Fort Resolution and Fort Smith will be among the communities north of the oil sands where residents may be asked to contribute some of their catch or kill of wildlife to sample for contaminants.

Proposed new monitoring at Fort Smith would include an air site, as well as biodiversity monitoring on a 20X20-km grid.

A water program also plans to enhance water quality measurements near Fort Smith.

Over the next three years, two additional water quality monitoring sites are planned to come on-line in the Slave River delta.

After full implementation in 2015, river reaches near Fort Smith and Fort Resolution (including the Slave River delta) should include fish and invertebrate sampling, which are indicators of water quality.

Hay River has been identified as a region where certain wildlife species, likely waterfowl, may be sampled for contaminants. The proposed monitoring uses an east-west transect on a latitude north of the oil sands where hunters in different communities may be asked to contribute waterfowl, with Hay River being identified as one of those communities.

The overall monitoring plan is designed to be adaptive, allowing for evaluation at regular intervals, Lau noted. "And, while a certain degree of long-term monitoring capacity is maintained, plans and activities will change or evolve to reflect experience and knowledge gained."

The Environment Canada spokesperson said scientific experts with the GNWT have been consulted on the original development and writing of many portions of the monitoring plan, adding consultation and collaboration continues on many fronts, such as the installation of air monitoring stations proposed for Fort Smith.

The new oil sands monitoring plan was announced on Feb. 3 by the federal and Alberta governments.

Under the plan, increased air, water, land and biodiversity monitoring of the oil sands will begin this year.

It is designed to improve understanding of the long-term cumulative effects of oil sands development.

The three-year implementation plan will begin in the spring with increased sampling frequency, parameters and locations. It will also integrate relevant parts of existing monitoring efforts.

The new plan will cost industry up to $50 million a year, including the roughly $20 million it already provides. Environment Canada will maintain the $6 million it spends annually on oil sands monitoring.

We welcome your opinions. Click here to e-mail a letter to the editor.