Waste sitting in pits could fill almost 883,000 Olympic-size swimming pools, and oil companies say they need to find a way to reduce it
The companies, including an affiliate of Exxon Mobil, are lobbying the Canadian government to set rules that would allow them to treat the waste and release it into the Athabasca River by 2025, so they have enough time to meet their commitments to eventually close the mines.
Of course they are.
Flush the water out is really the only option, the longer it sits in tailings ponds the more likely it is to have an uncontrolled spill. We absolutely need someone we can trust to define ‘clean’ though – and that’s not the government nor the mining companies; and we need someone we can trust to monitor it and confirm it is ‘clean’.
I bet there’s a third option, at least, that involves properly shoring up the tailings pond until they can process the toxic mess into something else.
I think we are saying the same thing. The best option is the recycling the toxic mess into valuable commodities and clean water.