Plans are in place to transform lands northeast of Edmonton - Alberta's Industrial Heartland - into a bitumen-upgrading, petrochemical-producing, industrial mecca! How will this impact our community?

A report on the planned upgrader development northeast of Edmonton was released yesterday by the Pembina Institute, an Alberta sustainable energy research organization. Upgrader Alley: Oil Sands Fever Strikes Edmonton, by Mary Griffiths, examines the environmental effects of plans to construct and run a number of new bitumen upgrading facilities in “Alberta’s Industrial Heartland”, a 530-square kilometre region in the counties of Strathcona, Sturgeon, and Lamont. The primarily agricultural lands have been rezoned as industrial lands, and 10 projects are in the works. Some are already operating, and some have yet to be approved.

These upgrader alley plans are part of our governments longer term plans to maintain economic growth in the province through tar sands related development. What the upgrader plants do is transform bitumen extracted from the tar sands into synthetic natural gas and synthetic crude oil, which can be used or further refined into the dozens of petrochemicals that we use on a daily basis. This process requires large inputs of natural gas and water, and produces large amounts of byproducts: carbon dioxide, sulphur, and other emissions. The Pembina report does a great job of explaining this process in a way that’s easy to understand.

Over the next decade, this region is going to go through a number of changes as a result of this industrial development. The report focuses primarily on the environmental impacts of this development in the Fort Saskatchewan area: loss of agricultural lands, increased consumption of water, greater greenhouse gas emissions, reduced air quality, potential contamination of underground aquifers, loss of natural lands and wildlife habitats, acidification of surrounding soils, negative effects on human health, and pollution.

But as Edmontonians concerned about social issues affecting our community, we can expect that Upgrader Alley will have a big impact on us, too! How will we keep up with the growing demand for housing and essential services such as health care and education with even more workers moving to the Edmonton region? We better get busy! We need to ensure that these services and infrastructure are established before Upgrader Alley reaches its potential – if all of the projects proceed, there will be at least 9 upgraders and petrochemical processing facilities and other related industries, on our doorstep in the next 10 years.

Will the roads between Edmonton and the Industrial Heartland become dangerous as hundreds of people commute to work each day?

Will existing services be stressed beyond their ability to cope with the growing demand?

We’re already having a tough time coping with economic growth, how can we manage so much more, in so little time?

The Pembina report calls for a pause...it insists that we need time to adequately plan so that we can mitigate the risks of development. According to the report, existing regulatory and planning mechanisms have potential to assess the risks and pose solutions, but as of now, they simply aren’t up to speed. The Alberta Environment’s Cumulative Effects Management Framework attempts to address some of the environmental impacts, but not all of them. And while the Capital Region Integrated Growth Management Plan is working on a long-range overall plan for land-use in the region, its report won’t be ready until 2010.

Upgrader Alley will undoubtedly have a number of positive outcomes – but it seems to me that there is also a lot to be worried about.

What do you think?
Upgrader Alley: Oil Sands Fever Strikes Edmonton is available on the Pembina Institute’s website, http://www.pembina.org/pub/1654.

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Organic Intellectual - Upgrader Alley   | 162.106.6.3 | 2008-06-20 08:59:01 You ask, "Will the roads between Edmonton and the Industrial Heartland become dangerous as hundreds of people commute to work each day?" The fact is, the required roads are not currently in place! We're talking about hundreds of millions of dollars needed to convert old unpaved rural roads into commuter highways! That's equivalent to the entire municipal budget of a county like Strathcona. The lacking roads and infrastructure is just one of the central social issues concerning these large-scale developments. These counties simply don't have the cash to build the infrastructure required BEFORE the development takes place (and before they reap in the money from property taxes). This applies to roads and highways, housing, schools, hospitals, grocery stores - you name it! All of it is in high demand in the area, and these four municipalities (including the city of Fort Saskatchewan) are bending over backwards to build the infrastructure so that it attracts investment. That's why they are asking the provincial and federal governments to lend their hand in bringing industrial growth to the area, and both are acquiescing. After all, the province and feds will reap in a much higher percentage of the property taxes from the proposed upgraders because of the tax structure. In the meantime, costs are soaring, particularly in the construction and engineering sectors. So as time goes on, inflation is making development less likely in the region. Given the changes in costs and environmental attitudes, I can foresee development in Upgrader Alley going one of two ways: 1) Development will go ahead, but will be on a MUCH smaller scale than originally anticipated. Maybe we'll see two or three upgraders before the labor supply dries up and the municipal budgets run out and capacity is reached and environmental opinion sways development - thereby keeping it somewhat in check. 2) Development goes ahead unabated, and the air, land and water quality suffer... Reply | Quote 0   0

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