Open Letter: Water for Alberta's Rivers

Dear Albertans:

We believe you understand the value of water and the need to use water wisely. That is why so many of you have participated in Alberta’s Water for Life Strategy, providing guidance to decision-makers about how we use and manage our water resources.

The goals of the Water for Life Strategy are:

• Safe, secure drinking water
• Healthy aquatic ecosystems
• Reliable, quality water supplies for a sustainable economy
Read more »

Posted October 13, 2011 by AEN

Health issues spur Northern Albertan residents to learn to sample own air

EDMONTON — Growing criticism of the Stelmach government’s and the oil industry’s air quality monitoring in communities near tar sands operations has spurred residents from the Peace and Athabasca regions to take matters into their own hands, attending independent training workshops to arm themselves with answers to the ongoing health issues plaguing their communities. Read more »

Posted November 17, 2010 by AEN

Healing Walk Past Toxic Tailings Ponds

"This is not a protest, but a way to help heal what has been destroyed and to give each other the spiritual strength to carry on."

Fort McMurray – First Nations, Metis elders, community members and other supporters will take part in a 13-kilometre 'healing walk' tomorrow that will pass by the vast tar sands operations of Syncrude and Suncor - once prime First Nation berry picking and hunting ground - to bring attention to the devastation of land andwater and to show the real suffering that comes with tar sands development. Read more »

Posted August 13, 2010 by AEN

Thousands of industrial incidents raise serious concerns about toxic oil industry

Greenpeace Canada, Sierra Club Prairie, Keepers of the Athabasca and Global Forest Watch Canada today released two databases compiled by prominent scientist Dr. Kevin Timoney, one with more than 6,500 incidents, regarding tar sands operations that raise serious concerns about how the Alberta government allows oil companies to operate in this province. Read more »

Posted August 3, 2010 by russ

Oil sands application threatens Canadian Heritage River designation

An application to Alberta Environment by Nexen Inc. for a water licence would be the first to enable the diversion of water from a designated Canadian Heritage River, the Clearwater River in north eastern Alberta, for unrecoverable use in oil sands upgrading and steam assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) for the Nexen Long Lake Project. Public notice of the application was placed in Alberta papers this week. Read more »

Posted July 8, 2010 by AEN

Woodland Caribou herds declining toward extinction in Alberta

Rural and provincial conservation groups today distributed copies of a new provincial government recovery plan for Alberta’s endangered woodland caribou. The ‘Action Plan for West-Central Alberta Caribou Recovery’ authorizes ongoing logging and oil and gas development in the caribou home ranges north of Hinton and Grande Cache. The groups also displayed more than two dozen Alberta government and science reports, consultations and recovery plans for caribou released since the late 1970’s, showing industrial impacts on forests and wildlife as the root cause of caribou decline.

The groups highlighted the fact that the government did not act on the previous plans written since the 1970’s, while at the same time Alberta’s caribou population has declined by almost two-thirds, from a high of an estimated population of 7,000 - 9,000 in the 1960’s to an estimated 3,000 today. Last year, a Canada-wide scientific review found that Alberta’s herds of woodland caribou were the most in danger of extinction among all provinces. Logging and oil and gas allocations increased rapidly during the 1980’s and 1990’s and now blanket Alberta forests. Read more »

Posted November 26, 2009 by Anonymous