Santa Cruz Predatory Bird Research Group
No, that's not the famous transmission from Neil Armstrong on the moon back in 1969, just a not-so humorous take on his immortal words, and a much more current situation that had its beginnings in the same time period. I had just turned 18 when the first astronauts walked on the moon, got my first parentally-supplied glass of champagne from my father when Armstrong's words were broadcast. He'd helped design the heat shielding for the Apollo Missions, and had worked for many years to see that day come about. The future appeared wide open then, we had big dreams and bigger plans, weren't paying too much attention to a filthy mining project getting underway in the wildlands of Alberta, Canada at the time.
Since 1967 Canada has been tapping the Athabasca Oil Sands in northeastern Alberta, in concert with an ever-revolving list of Big Oil corporate stakeholders and at an ever increasing pace. This is filthy crude oil, obtained by processes that pour toxins wholesale into the environment, and the subject of the Keystone XL pipeline planned to run from Alberta down the 'breadbasket' Midwestern section of the U.S. to refineries on the Gulf coast, from where it will be exported to the highest bidders.
While there are relatively few people living full time in the region, the Athabasca, Mackenzie and related rivers, lakes and marshlands support huge numbers of wildlife including caribou, wolves, fish and migratory birds of vast variety. Death toll of birds in the region's ~30,000 acres of tailings ponds has been estimated at more than 5,000 a year.
A recent study from the Joint Oil Sands Monitoring Program [JOSM] show a 40% increase in mercury levels in gulls from the Lake Athabasca area from 1977 to 2009. Just between 2006 and 2010 the amount of mercury in the tailings ponds rose 80%. Arsenic and other toxins are also produced by the extraction process and have been building up in the waste ponds for decades. Migratory duck flocks have been recorded to die en masse soon after landing in tailings ponds. Fish that live and spawn in the area are also being greatly impacted, displaying bizarre mutations, tumors and deformations.
In the winter birds from the Athabasca region fly south to Utah, Nevada and northern California. Bald eagles have been arriving since November, and are dying horribly.
Wildlife experts are on high alert as more bald eagles are found suffering from a mysterious illness bringing the total number of sick birds in Utah to 20.
Of those 20 bald eagles, at least 16 of them are dead.
At first they thought it might be lead poisoning, as the birds are displaying symptoms associated with neurotoxin overload - tremors, paralysis, seizures. 20 sick birds of the normal 750 to 1200 bald eagles who call Utah home in the winter isn't a huge number, but wildlife officials are expecting the numbers to go up. In the meantime, they're treating the birds for West Nile Virus and waiting for necropsy test results to come in.
A recent die-off of eared grebes which began in November has killed thousands of birds, and may signal a pathway of infection for the eagles who are known to prey on these smaller shore birds.
It has not been established whether the birds are dying from disease or from toxic overload - picked up in Canada or elsewhere along their routes - and it's (as always) not ensured that the public will be informed of the actual cause even if it is tracked down. We do know the toxin situation in their nesting region of Alberta is critical and is a serious concern for the people who live in the region as well. Mercury, heavy metals, arsenic and other toxins known to be in the tailings ponds are bioaccumulating substances, meaning that the predators at the top of the food chain will accumulate the most. Eagles are predators. The illustration atop this diary shows the migratory pathways for the eagles, so perhaps we will begin hearing about their health from California and Nevada wintering grounds as well.
Another recent report from nine Canadian, American and Scottish scientists from the California-based Rosenberg International Forum on Water Policy [UC Agriculture and Natural Resources] maintains that the largest single threat to the MacKenzie River basin (north of the tar sands area) comes from potential breaches in the tailings ponds. Such a breach in winter sending the toxic stew under the ice of the Athabasca River, "would be virtually impossible to remediate or clean up." In fact, a relatively small breach in 1982 caused the Lake Athabasca fishery to be closed for two years. A large breach would threaten the lower Athabasca, the Peace-Athabasca Delta, Great Slave Lake, the Mackenzie River and Delta, and perhaps even the Beaufort Sea.
In addition to the bald eagles, the Mackenzie River basin supports the breeding grounds of the world's only flock of wild Whooping Cranes. Growing resistance to the Keystone XL pipeline - and opposition to further development of the tar sands themselves - must take into consideration the dangers presented to wildlife as well as humans and the issue of global warming. Greed to exploit the last drop of petroleum along with the last chunk of coal on this planet before humanity switches to less or non-polluting alternatives for transportation fuels and electrical generation must be stopped if we wish there to be a future for upcoming generations.
350.org and Tar Sands Action both offer good factsheets detailing the issues and the importance of actions to end this rape of the land and resources.