Elevated levels of toxins found in Athabasca River-Globe and Mail

COMMENTS:
For anyone who believes that the Canadian government is protecting the environment and the indigenous people downstream from toxic impacts of industry, read the article below. People and the environment are being sold out as profits and power are amassed.

The stream of revenue governments make via their partnership with corporations (whose sole focus is revenue production for their board of directors, shareholders and the aligned governments) represent an historical relationship between the colonial governments and industry.

This partnership aligns industry with governments around the globe. Willing governments sell out their people and the ecosystem with blatant lies and coverups (U.S. EPA hydraulic fracturing study 2004) and not so blatant (Brazil water privatization to Bechtell) as they issue permits to industry to rape and pillage land and sea at continued loss to human and animal life as well as total destruction to ecosystems. Read Vandana Shiva "Soil not Oil."

Those who reveal the lies are heroes and their courage and moral convictions give citizens the fortitude to forge ahead to continue to demand human and environmental rights and protections in spite of government's criminal actions. The people, whether those colonized, enslaved, or trampled, can still reach for the highest goals and set examples for our governments. Read Howard Zinn "Peoples' History of the United States."

While this will take an historical departure from the pillage and plunder pattern, there still is hope, and in the words of Martin Luther King, JR., "The arc of history is long, but it bends towards justice."

"When a well packaged web of lies has been sold gradually to
the masses over generations, the truth will seem utterly
preposterous and it's speaker a raving lunatic."........Anonymous

Drilling Mora County



Josh Wingrove
8/30/2010

A study set to be published on Monday has found elevated levels of mercury, lead and eleven other toxic elements in the oil sands' <#> main fresh water source, the Athabasca River, refuting long-standing government and industry claims that water quality there hasn't been affected by oil sands development.

The author of the study, University of Alberta biological scientist David Schindler, criticized the province and industry for an "absurd" system that obfuscates or fails to discover essential data about the river. "I think they [the findings] are significant enough that they should trigger some interest in a better monitoring program than we have," he said. [comment: ya, and send some of that better monitoring to the frac fields too!!]

The Athabasca has increasingly become a flashpoint for debate. Earlier this year, Environment Minister Jim Prentice dismissed Dr. Schindler's previous peer-reviewed work as "allegations."...continued....