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Local scientist to join all-star oilsand panel

A local scientist has been tapped to help make a world-class environmental monitoring system for the oilsands. Alberta Environment Minster Rob Renner announced the 12 members of his expert panel on oilsands monitoring Thursday.

A local scientist has been tapped to help make a world-class environmental monitoring system for the oilsands.

Alberta Environment Minster Rob Renner announced the 12 members of his expert panel on oilsands monitoring Thursday. The panel was one of two announced last year in response to studies that suggested oilsands companies were causing more pollution in the Athabasca River than previously thought.

"I am committed to ensuring we have a robust, credible and transparent environmental monitoring, evaluation and reporting system in the province, beginning with the oilsands region," said Renner in a press release. The panel will make recommendations on how to create a world-class system to track the effects of pollution on air, land, water and biodiversity in the oilsands region, a system that will later expand to cover all Alberta.

We know from previous studies by the federal oilsands panel and the Royal Society of Canada that Alberta needs a better monitoring program for the oilsands, said Alberta Environment spokesperson Trevor Gemmell. "This is the panel that will actually build that monitoring program."

The panel will make recommendations on how to improve the province's monitoring network and make its data accessible to the public. It will also design a scientific panel to vet that data and a governance structure to manage it.

Local expert

The panel includes several notable Alberta academes. Joseph Doucet is a well-known energy policy economist at the University of Alberta, while Joseph Rasmussen is the Canada Research Chair in aquatic ecosystems. Rasmussen also served on the federal oilsands panel, which issued its report last December.

St. Albert's Warren Kindzierski has been tapped as one of the panel's health authorities. Kindzierski is a professor at the University of Alberta's School of Public Health and has done extensive research on air quality in the oilsands over the last decade.

Oilsands research definitely needs improvement, he said. "In some aspects, it's been studied to death." There's a lot of work being done, he continued, but few people know about it or understand it.

The federal panel's report made similar observations. Many groups were doing excellent air pollution research, it noted, but were not looking at how air pollutants affected ground and surface water. Some groups cranked out reams of data that was so disorganized that it was unusable.

Alberta already has a pretty good air monitoring system in the oilsands, Kindzierski said, one that has not found any significant changes in air pollutant concentrations in the last decade. "One of the most important aspects is having a monitor that's in place over time," he said.

An effective system would need to make sure these monitors stay active so researchers have records they can rely on.

The panel's recommendations are due by June.


Kevin Ma

About the Author: Kevin Ma

Kevin Ma joined the St. Albert Gazette in 2006. He writes about Sturgeon County, education, the environment, agriculture, science and aboriginal affairs. He also contributes features, photographs and video.
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