(From the Edmonton Journal, September 5, 2010) Due to an editing error, a story on A1 Saturday stated that a dam on the Peace River affected flows in the Athabasca River. In fact, it affected flows in the Peace River. *****

The Journal's Hanneke Brooymans and Ryan Jackson went to Fort Chipewyan to learn more about water concerns in the shadow of industrial development. 

Today: The community's worries 

Sunday: What they want 

Monday: Fears for the future 

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Cookie Simpson was born in a tent in the Dog Head Reserve, near the shores of Lake Athabasca. Her access to clean drinking water was as good as any city kid's, but it didn't involve a tap. Instead, she scooped water right from the lake with a cup. 

"The water was so clear and blue. When you looked down you could see the bottom." 

A lot has changed in her 60 years. A dam on the Peace River reduced the flow of the Athabasca River and oilsands development sprang up along its banks. 

"Now it's just grey and dirty and you can see the oil floating on top. You can't drink it anymore." 

She can't remember exactly when she stopped drinking from the lake. Gradually, she saw changes in the water. "It wasn't clean anymore." 

"We knew long before the government even said anything, the people in Fort Chip knew that there was something wrong," said Simpson, a former nurse. "They knew that it was industry because that's where the water is coming from." 

Simpson says her family used to live on wild foods and ate everything they caught. That included an array of fish, from pike to goldeye. Some of the fish now contain so much mercury that the government warns only limited quantities can be safely consumed each week. 

Simpson still eats the fish. 

"I try to put my fears aside because I still want to practise my culture. It's what we lived on from when I was born right till now." 

At a cultural retreat last week near Fort Chipewyan, the community set up a small camp to demonstrate how they smoke whitefish and moose meat, like they have done for millennia. Oilsands industry employees were invited. 

It's hard for people to stop eating fish and wild meat, said Melody Lepine, director of government and industry relations for the Mikisew Cree. 

"But unfortunately, it's getting to the point where they're going to have to because the contamination is getting to the point where people's health is possibly being affected." 

She cited research released this week by a team led by University of Alberta ecologist David Schindler and researcher Erin Kelly. 

It said that contrary to industry and government claims, the oilsands release pollutants that are toxic, at low concentrations, to air and water, substantially increasing those pollutants in the  Athabasca River and its watershed. 

Many of the metals measured exceeded guidelines set to protect aquatic organisms. "It clearly reveals the actual contamination that's happening -- everything the community has been suggesting and fearing," Lepine said. 

Fort Chipewyan residents have for years suspected that upstream industrial activity was connected to cancers and rare illnesses in their community. A 2009 Alberta Cancer Board report showed there are 30 per cent more cancers than expected in the community, but said the small population cast doubt on the statistical significance of the numbers. 

"The dots are starting to get all connected now," Lepine said. "Here we had the cancer study saying 30-per-cent higher than normal. Now we have these carcinogenic toxins in the river, some very close to the community. ... Everything is all coming together. It's a really sad story." 

Not everyone is convinced. Alberta Environment Minister Rob Renner thinks the increases in contaminants in the river are naturally occurring. This is what the Regional Aquatics Monitoring Program or RAMP, an industry-led monitoring agency, has been saying for years, as well as have Alberta Environment scientists. Schindler believes industry increases pollutants. Premier Ed Stelmach has asked the two sides to sit down and discuss their differences. 

The Northwest Territories is downstream from Alberta's oilsands development and is negotiating flow agreements with Alberta and British Columbia to address water quality and quantity issues. 

N.W.T. Deputy Premier Michael Miltenberger said the debate between RAMP and Schindler reminds him of the resistance by scientists on the issue of climate change. 

Schindler wants Environment Canada to take over more of the monitoring of the Athabasca River and to be tougher. 

It is illegal to deposit harmful substances in fish-bearing waters under the federal Fisheries Act it, he said, and Environment Canada needs to act on that. 

Environment Canada Minister Jim Prentice said the government has increased monitoring in that watershed in the past year. A new chemical fingerprinting unit should help determine in the next few months if the contaminants in the river are coming from industry. "The law is very clear under the Fisheries Act that you're prohibited from polluting a river," Prentice said. 

The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers says Schindler acknowledged in his report that the concentrations of pollutants in melted snow, tributaries and the Athabasca River did not exceed drinking water quality guidelines. 

"Additionally, Fort Chip has a modern water-treatment facility to further treat drinking water from the river," Travis Davies, an association spokesman, said in an e-mail. 

Alberta Environment assistant deputy minister Bev Yee said Albertans are warned not to drink untreated water from any river or lake as a rule. 

Forty years of data show little variability in the water quality of the Athabasca River, she said. The changes have been attributed to reduced flows due to climate change, and the same effect is seen upstream as far as Hinton. 

Schindler said there are ways to reduce pollutants entering the  river. Oilsands plants can improve the way they clean emissions coming out of stacks, like they do with coal-fired power plants. Miners could be prevented from stripping the land right up to the edge of rivers and streams. That would allow vegetation to filter the water before it reaches rivers. 

The 1,200 residents of Fort Chipewyan have long wanted action taken to reduce pollution. 

Steve Courtoreille, a band councillor for the Mikisew Cree First Nation and president of the Nunee Health Board Society, said the clock is ticking. He said people in the community used to die of old age or accidents. "And today so many people are being diagnosed with different cancers. And trying to get the government to listen, we're not getting anywhere with that. There's always that challenge of 'prove it to us.' We're not scientists. We know there's something happening. We know it's not right." 

The community wants to learn what's causing the cancers and correct that problem, he said. 

"Once we pollute every stream, every body of water, and the price of water is going to cost more than oil, only then will we realize that we can't drink oil." 

hbrooymans@thejournal.canwest.com

Credit: Hanneke Brooymans; Edmonton Journal