So what's the story?
Minister Jason Nixon. Image credit Ian Kucerak, Postmedia. (2020) From COVID-19: Alberta government suspends environmental reporting rules.
You've heard the interviews and read the blogs (if not, stop here and go back!). So what's the story? Where does the Industrial Heartland fit in to the big picture of politics, the economy, the environment and the future of Alberta.
In the last 20 years, the heartland has largely succeeded in avoiding high profile controversy that has plagued the oilsands operations in Northern Alberta. This could be because of a slowdown in growth after 'upgrader alley' slipped away along with media coverage, or it could be because often the petrochemical upgrading and processing facilities tend to be seen as a solution, rather than a problem to some of Albertas economic challenges and concern around the more hot-button topic of pipelines. Another theory is that the industry in the area has worked hard, especially over the last few years, to work with stakeholders (and very closely with municipalities) to improve their goodwill within the communities surrounding the area.
Our interview with the Fort Air Partnership (FAP), as well as their recent report "Air Quality Trending and Comparison Report" (2019) show the materials FAP tests for (fine matter particulates, ozone, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and carbon monoxide) at or below acceptable levels fairly consistently (if there was sufficient data). In fact, the monitoring agency cites issues such as major wildfires and increased traffic/vehicle usage in the area as major contributors to air quality spikes.
However, researchers from the University of California Irvine tested for VOC's in the area and found another story to tell in their report "Air quality in the Industrial Heartland of Alberta, Canada and potential impacts on human health." In 2015, the Canadian Press released a story about the report calling these "brief, dramatic spikes" in benzene a concern.
The government of Canada requires industry to report certain pollutants for monitoring through the NPRI (National Pollutant Release Inventory Program) which has an inventory of pollutants and contaminants industry are to report. While these reporting requirements are meant to be mandatory, researchers Simpson et al. found there were gaps in reporting, and recommend that "independent air monitoring and VOC emission estimates in the Heartland region so that emitted compounds can be externally identified, quantified and reported in the peer-reviewed literature" (2013).
What does this really mean? Well, in this case, researchers found "excess numbers of hematopoietic cancers" in the heartland and suggest the body of scientific literature on the subject indicates there are really no safe levels of benzene.
As far as water quality is concerned, Gord Thompson discusses effluent levels and talks a lot about how some of the worst pressures on water quality is actually the activity of humans, and sometimes agriculture in the region. Gord is right, humans impact our environment more than we think we do, and as citizens we have to be conscious of how individual behaviour, turned collective phenomena creates compounding effects on the world around us. Surely this applies to all human activity, industry included.
Wayne Groot gave us a good idea of what it felt like and what it feels like to be a neighbour to this giant industrial area. Interestingly, studies have been done on the social impacts of creating a whole new economic driver right beside communities that already exist. Researchers Mesuda and Garvin interviewed a wide swath of community members, politicians, farmers, and industry personnel to get to the heart of what challenges this kind of development faces.
In the research study "Whose Heartland?: The politics of place in a rural–urban interface" Mesuda and Garvin found that messaging "framed industrial development as a means to secure the long-term economic sustainability of the region" and positioned the "industry-as-provider." In surveys of citizens, most participants believed at that time that "industrial operations would impose exponentially more risks on local inhabitants and threaten not only the natural environment, but human health and safety" (Mesuda & Garvin, 2008).
And this is where politics jumps into the mix. Industry and government funded agencies in Alberta monitor what they are told to monitor - and by all accounts they do a really good job. We have competent, capable monitoring agencies, scientists and communications staff who help to tell the story of what is being monitored. However, what is not being monitored could be just as important to the long term sustainability of any economic activity
Similar to the Fort Air Partnership, the North Saskatchewan Watershed alliance monitors and works with stakeholders to build better networks of understanding on the state of the watershed for the entire region. These organizations are doing their best - the staff work really hard to provide good quality, reliable and valid data that is well communicated to the public. However, they are only responsible for the piece they are responsible for, and the provincial and federal government should have higher standards for our industry, given the risk to the population and the reward for these large multi-nationals to continue operating.
In recent news, and what really is a strange twist to environmental reporting; the current Alberta government has suspended reporting for environmental impact activity during the COVID-19 pandemic. While monitoring will still continue a three-month (up to six-month in some cases) extension for reporting has been granted for exceedances of ambient air quality guidelines, and summary reports, to name a few (AEP, 2020).
When it comes to industry and the environment, we can't take for granted that our economy can't overtake what our environment can handle. What our environment can handle often has a direct link to what our health can handle. While some agencies and government departments are focusing on certain types of reporting that allows the government of the day to promote statistics that give them social license to continue development, other independent agencies are finding data that should be incorporated into the decision making of our policy makers.
The Fort Air and water quality good-news stories of overall air and water quality is one part of this larger puzzle of Alberta's industrial and economic pressures linking to our environmental and social responsibilities.
Sources:
AEP. (March 31, 2020). Temporary Amendment of Select Air Monitoring Directive Requirements. [Ministerial Order] Retrieved from https://open.alberta.ca/publications/temporary-amendment-select-air-monitoring-directive-requirements
Masuda, J. R., & Garvin, T. (2008). Whose Heartland?: The politics of place in a rural–urban interface.Journal of Rural Studies,24(1), 112–123. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2007.08.003
Simpson, I. J., Marrero, J. E., Batterman, S., Meinardi, S., Barletta, B., & Blake, D. R. (2013). Air quality in the Industrial Heartland of Alberta, Canada and potential impacts on human health.Atmospheric Environment,81, 702–709. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2013.09.017