Tar Sands again

Syncrude, Fort McMurray, Alberta

In 2014 results of a study published in the 
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America showed that official reports on emissions were not high enough. Report authors noted that, emissions of organic substances with potential toxicity to humans were the (PAH)s  phenanthrene, pyrene, and benzo(a)pyrene, and that these emissions had been previously unreported.
Bitumen extracted from tar sands has the consistency of peanut butter and must be diluted to flow through pipelines. And that's just the beginning. 

Pipelines used to simply dilute heavy crude with lighter oil and pump it. But bitumen is not heavy crude. It needs chemical dilution and heating to move through a pipeline. 
Pipelines carry this diluted bitumen, also known as dilbit, from Canada's tar sands region. Dilbit is harder to remove from waterways than typical light crude oil, often called conventional crude, that has historically been used as an energy source. Bitumen sinks to the bottom and creates a dead zone for live creatures and plants while the stream above may look somewhat normal. Experts and scientists in the pipeline business are very shy about being interviewed about dilbit. The exact composition of the chemicals, collectively called diluents, is considered a trade secret. The diluents vary depending on the particular type of dilbit being produced. The mixture often includes benzene, a known human carcinogen. We don't know what else.

In Canada, DilBit is not subject to any additional safety regulations. This is one of the reasons why it’s hard to compare DilBit’s safety record with that of conventional crude. In public statements, Enbridge constantly hides information about DilBit in “heavy crude” statistics. We know diluted bitumen is used from the Tar Sands. What's it diluted with exactly?

There is general information available about dilbit but even that cannot be published. It can be copied for personal use but you have to find it yourself. If your backyard was full of that black dilbit from a pipeline spill, you would not be able to get the exact composition of it from the industry. This could be crucial for health reasons, in the event of a spill, first responders would not even know what chemistry they are dealing with!

The environment is a major concern surrounding the rapid industrial development in the Athabasca oil sands region. It should be of great concern to everyone. The tar sands region of Alberta, Canada is the third largest petroleum reserve in the world. Be watchful folks.

Is this rapid development? The tar sands from 1984 to 2012 in overlapped pictures.

Doesn't quite look like that teeny little patch in the green forest that Enbridge is selling us, does it?

Just sayin'.