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Compilation: Photos of Fish Pulled from the Athabasca River, which runs through the heart of the Alberta Tar Sands

Sources:

Prentice to Review Oil Sands Monitoring

Study provides damning evidence that tar sands development causing carcinogenic pollution in Alberta

A study published yesterday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) provides damning evidence that tar sands development has been causing carcinogenic pollution in Alberta – not just in the immediate development region but even as far as 50 miles away. Today’s print edition of the New York Times features an article on the study entitled Oil Sands Industry in Canada Tied to Higher Carcinogen Level.

A Smoking Gun on the Athabasca River: Deformed Fish

Given the regularity with which fisherman now catch deformed fish, Schindler suggested that a federally funded fish health study on the Athabasca River “should be a much higher priority [for Ottawa] than funding hockey rinks and new fighter jets.” Aboriginal communities and leaders downstream of the oil sands have been calling for such studies for nearly a decade.

Deformed Fish Coming Out of Athabasca River

Chief Allan Adam of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation said that the community has been told that the contaminants are naturally occurring. He and his community question those statements citing the health decline in their region due to cancers and other illnesses that had never been in the area before.

“We need answers now about whether industry pollutants are related to declines in fish health and the health of our community.”

Oilsands Poisoning Fish says Scientists, Fishermen

“We live a very traditional life, we live off the land and the water. We have been told again and again that contaminants are naturally occurring, yet in the last 40 years we have seen the health of our community decline due to cancers and illness that we didn’t see before,” Chief Allan Adam of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation said in a statement.

In June this year [2010], the Canadian Federal government canceled an 18-month investigation into tar sands pollution in water and shredded the draft copies of the final report, without an adequate explanation of why.