Study finds little environmental impact from Canadian oil sands: The ‘toxins well downstream of the oil sands come from the environment, not big steel stacks…’
'...a finding that suggests the industrial impact on the environment is largely local, rather than broadly regional' - 'Perhaps most intriguing: They found levels of polycyclic aromatic compounds, which can cause cataracts, organ damage and cancer in humans, were at their lowest between 1975 and 1995, a period of oil-sands growth'
‘When scientists drilled into lake bottoms 200 kilometres from those oil-sands mines, they discovered something surprising: At that distance, levels of those pollutants were negligible. In fact, the lake sediments, whose layers opened a window onto hundreds of years of air and water quality, showed that in many ways those lakes are cleaner today than they were decades, and even centuries, ago.’
