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Canada's Oil Sands

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Canada’s Oil Sands Resubmission

Several communities in Canada have grown and become dependent on the oil industry, such as Fort McMurray [20]. Many local economies within Northern Alberta rely on the oil sands [19]. The Shell Albian Sands [37], consisting of the Athabasca Oil Sands Project, accounts for 17 percent of Canada’s oil production. The project has been extracting and processing heavy Canadian crude [18] oil for years.

Transportation of the oil is heavily reliant on pipelines, especially since some of the oil extracted in Canada is sent to other countries. The Keystone XL oil pipeline [5] is a proposed pipeline that will transport natural resources from Alberta to Gulf coast refineries. The pipeline is heavily opposed by the Natural Resources Defense Council [24], mainly arguing the pipeline will have negative long term economic and environmental impacts. One of the areas the pipeline will pose a threat to is the Ogallala Aquifer [10]. The Ogallala Aquifer is a shallow water table beneath the Great Plains of the United States. It provides about 30% of the ground water used to irrigation in the United States. If the Keystone XL pipeline is built, there is the risk of an oil spill, which would contaminate the Ogallala Aquifer.

Another proposed pipeline is the Northern Gateway pipeline [32], which will stretch from Bruderheim, Alberta to Kitimat, British Columbia. The eastbound pipeline will transport natural gas condesate, while the westbound pipeline will transport diluted bitumen [22]. The pipeline is heavily opposed by the B.C. First Nations communities [33] located in the potential path of the pipeline. There have been numerous formal declarations against the intrusion of a pipeline into aboriginal land, including the Yinka Dene Alliance, the Heilksuk Nation, and the Coastal First Nations. Many first nations communities in the Canadian oil sand

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