Tar Sands Pipelines Should Get Special Treatment, EPA Says

[PDJane]

30. Tar sands are toxic, abrasive and corrosive.

The stuff is washed off sand, and some sand always remains. There is a difference between synthetic crude and diluted bitumen; it has to do with the amount of natural gas condensate added to the mix. It sinks instead of floats because the condensates are volatile; they evaporate, and bitumen sinks. It has to be physically removed, or it sits where it is and leaches poisons; cyanide, arsenic, mercury, lead, polyaromatic hydrocarbons. Between the condensates and the polyaromitic hydrocarbons, tar sands make the air almost impossible to breathe, and lead to rashes, nausea, and cancers. There is a problem with sulphur, too, although most of that is screened out on site.

As for refining here, there is a refinery in Québec that will take the tar sands. To get it there, the PTB are planning to run it through 40 year old pipes meant for natural gas (repurposed to sweet crude) that will put at risk the entire Lake Ontario catchment area....and which runs underneath the subway lines. That puts at risk the drinking water for millions of people, and we're trying to stop it.

Frankly, I don't want it to run through the USA, I don't want it to put First Nations land at risk, and tankers are out. It is better off staying where it is, instead of being fully exploited. Just getting at it raises global warming.

The faster we move to renewables the better.