Running out of Steam? A Workshop on Oil Sands Development and Water Use in the Athabasca River Watershed: Science and Market-Based Solutions
Meeting Report
Environmental Research and Studies Centre (ERSC) at the University of Alberta and The Program on Water Issues
May 05, 2007
- English
In the province of Alberta, as in Canada's other prairie provinces, water allocation is becoming an increasingly important public policy issue. The relatively arid conditions on the prairies pose many challenges for water managers and decision makers. How can we ensure that we have enough water now and in the future to support our growing cities, agricultural users and the booming energy sector? How do we allocate precious water resources among competing interests? How do we ensure that we have sufficient flows to protect fisheries and other instream uses?
One of the rivers where these challenges are most vivid is the Athabasca River. The Athabasca is the third longest undamned river in North America, after the Yukon and the Mackenzie Rivers. It stretches 1400 km from the Columbia Ice Fields on the Albert-British Columbia border to its sprawling delta at Lake Athabasca in the northeast corner of Alberta. There the river joins the Peace and Birch Rivers to form a largest boreal delta in the world—the Peace-Athabasca delta—a complex of ever-shifting channels, wetlands and lakes. The delta is recognized internationally as a designated RAMSAR wetland and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. During spring migration it hosts up to 400,000 birds and is the prime range for 5000 bison. The ecologically rich delta has supported communities of aboriginal people for thousands of years, and it they who named the river, Athabasca, or "grass here and there" in the Cree language.
In recent years, concern has risen about whether we are taking too much water from the Athabasca, especially with respect to oil sands extraction. To review the current science on the issue and identify potential solutions to the problem, the Environmental Research and Studies Centre (ERSC) at the University of Alberta joined with the Program on Water Issues (POWI) at the Munk Centre for International Studies at the University of Toronto. ERSC and POWI commissioned a discussion paper, Running Out of Steam? Oil Sands Development and Water Use in the Athabasca River Watershed: Science and Market Based Solutions. The discussion paper was authored by a research team led by two of Canada's leading experts in the conservation of freshwater and natural capital, Dr. David Schindler and Dr. Vic Adamowicz.
Dr. Schindler and Dr. Adamowicz presented their paper at the Running Out of Steam Workshop hosted by ERSC and POWI on May 19, 2007 at the University of Alberta. This report presents the highlights of the Workshop, including overviews of the presentations made and the comments, suggestions and critiques offered by participants.