Renner Dismisses Oilsands Toxins Report

EDMONTON — Alberta's environment minister disputed the conclusions of a controversial oilsands study Tuesday, saying it's likely that increased toxins in the Athabasca River are due to natural causes.

But Rob Renner admitted he hadn't read the paper and could point to no peer-reviewed data or studies to back up his assertion.

"My scientists are telling me that the amount of compounds that can be detected in the Athabasca River at this point in time are not a concern and are of insignificant levels," Renner said. "The fact remains that there are naturally occurring substances in the water. And if we had never set foot in the region those kinds of results would still be there."

Renner said the task ahead is to tease out what toxins in the river are from industrial development and what occur naturally from bitumen seeping into the river.

The study was written by University of Alberta ecologist David Schindler along with his colleague Erin Kelly and others from Queen's University and a non-profit group called Oceana.

Over a two-year period, they tested for 13 elements and found levels of cadmium, copper, lead, mercury, nickel, silver and zinc downstream from oilsands sites that exceeded provincial and national guidelines.

They tested the concentration of contaminants at industrial sites and found they were significantly higher than background levels in the river.

Schindler said it's the only study that has been peer-reviewed and published in a credible scientific journal.

"Otherwise, we hear from all these government spokespeople about science that they have, but they won't allow anybody to see it," Schindler said. "It's a 'trust us' kind of thing and I just don't buy it. If they have this data set that refutes ours, let them write it up and publish a response."

The data, which were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, seem to refute previous government and industry claims that there is no increased concentration of contaminants in the oilsands region.

Indeed, an oilsands fact sheet on the government's website Tuesday says "data indicate no increased concentration of contaminants in surface water in the oilsands area."

The NDP accused the government of misleading the public on the issue. They pointed to a number of statements from Renner in the legislature repeating the assertion that no toxins are leaching into the river.

"They owe Albertans an explanation about that obvious contradiction," MLA Rachel Notley said.

Premier Ed Stelmach did not take questions from reporters about the issue, but Energy Minister Ron Liepert took a swipe at Schindler after a lunchtime speech.

"If you look back at the work that he has done in the past, I'm not surprised that this was the result," Liepert said. "That doesn't mean it's wrong. That's what is going to have to be assessed by (the Environment) Department."

Schindler brushed-off Liepert's statements.

"This is something I've seen before in Alberta -- if you don't like the message, try to shoot the messenger," he said.

Some of Schindler's most scathing criticism has been reserved for the regional aquatics monitoring program, an industry-led initiative to measure water quality.

Schindler has called them incompetent and called for the program to be scrapped.

Renner defended the program and its spokesman, Fred Kuzmic, who works for Shell Albian Sands.

Kuzmic echoed Renner's comments that the toxins Schindler found may have come from natural sources, something he said they can test using data collected over 13 years.