Falling water levels and contaminants in the Athabasca River are cutting First Nations people off from traditional hunting, fishing and trapping lands and taking away their treaty rights, says a report released Thursday. 

The report's main author said this is the first time the river's declining flow and water quality have been studied in the context of aboriginal treaty rights. 

"If people cannot move around the territories by boat and by water, then they cannot practise their traditions, their culture, their rights," Craig Candler told a press conference Thursday. 

Worries about contaminated fish and meat from animals such as moose "are having direct effects on how people are able to use the land and are able to practise their rights," Candler said. 

The Treaty 8 agreement guaranteeing hunting, fishing and trapping rights to sustain the First Nations' traditional livelihood was signed in 1899. 

Governments must better protect the river to make sure treaty promises are fulfilled, said the report, titled As Long As the  Rivers Flow: Athabasca RiverKnowledge, Use and Change. That means taking treaty rights into account when government decides how much water oilsands development is allowed to use, it said. 

The report recommends the creation of two new water-level thresholds. 

The first should define how much water is needed in the Athabasca River and its adjacent streams so Athabasca Cree First Nations people can hunt, trap and fish with full access to traditional lands. The second threshold should indicate the water level at which "widespread and extreme disruption of treaty and aboriginal rights occurs," the study said. "Access to large portions of key First Nation territories, including Indian reserves, is lost at extreme low water levels." 

The new thresholds should guide how much water oilsands development is allowed to withdraw from the river. Government should also do more work to understand how contamination fears are affecting First Nations' use of traditional lands, the report recommended. 

The Athabasca Chipewyan First Nations and the Mikisew Cree First Nation commissioned the peer-reviewed study by the Firelight Group Research Co-operative, which examined how conditions in the river have affected traditional land and water use. 

Willie Courtoreille, an elder from Mikisew, said there was no access this fall to some of the area's most important moose habitat. He estimated low water levels have cut the two communities off from more than 80 per cent of their traditional territory. "It's getting lower every year," he said. 

Alberta Environment spokeswoman Jessica Potter said the province works to manage industrial development in a way that protects the environment, including the Athabasca River. Alberta Environment has of 11 water-quality monitoring stations in the Lower Athabasca region, including four long-term stations with data going back as far as 1977, to provide a "very comprehensive" picture of water quality, she said. 

A peer-reviewed contaminant-load study and a University of Alberta community-based traditional food study are in progress to look at what contaminants people are exposed to through food, water and air, Potter said. Findings from those studies are expected to be released in 2012, with interim results as they become available. 

The province also manages water levels through its water-management framework for the Lower Athabasca River, which sets thresholds for water withdrawals, she said. 

"This is one of the most protected in the world," Potter said. 

"All existing oilsands projects withdraw less than one per cent of the average annual flow (of the Athabasca River). The total allocation is less than three per cent, so they are allocated more than they use." 

Alberta Environment is about to conduct public consultations on its water-management framework for the Lower Athabasca River, Potter added. 

Issues such as climate change and changes to precipitation levels have contributed to the river's declining water levels, Potter said. "It's not just here. Jurisdictions all over the place are having water issues." 

University of Alberta water expert David Schindler said if the province can't prevent contamination and water-level problems, the federal government -- responsible for treaty rights -- should step in to meet Treaty 8 obligations. 

"The government did assure them that the land would be available to fish and hunt. Well, if you turn it into mine pits and toxify the fisheries and things, that's not exactly living up to those assurances," Schindler said. 

"I think this report is a much-needed summary of things because most people really don't have a clue about all of these violations of treaty rights. My guess is that when their grandchildren look back 100 years from now at this treaty and how badly we've honoured it, they're going to be pretty disgusted with this generation's behaviour."