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Politics : Politics of Energy
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To: Eric who wrote (50788)5/6/2014 3:44:55 PM
From: Land Shark  Read Replies (1) of 86356
 
The big problem with the tar sands is what to do with the tailings water. Right now little of it is recycled. The regs don't allow it to be discharged into the Athabasca River, so they just accumulate huge amounts of it in ponds. It can't be recycled without separating the suspended solids contained within it (MFT). So, the idea is to centrifuge it out, but processing millions of barrels per day of that water is extremely costly (maybe as expensive as the whole operation itself). Meanwhile lake sized tailings ponds keep getting larger and larger. Dikes get built up larger and larger. Some of the ponds are directly adjacent to the river (e.g. for Suncor operations). No doubt it gets in the river one way or another. This is a huge disaster.

Oh also, many of the players are now looking into non-aqueous oil extraction. The assumption here is that the solvents used would be 100% recycled and would never leak. IMO, this would even be a bigger disaster.

Of course, all this is associated with mining operations... SAGD is a bit better, but still has the produced water problem. They at least treat and recycle much of it and dispose of the rest down wells. Not such a big disaster as mining, IMO. But, mining is the cheapest and most profitable.

BTW, I'm involved in LPG distribution now. I've nothing to do with that ecological disaster.
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