How the Oil Sands Got to the Great Lakes Basin: Pipelines, Refineries and Emissions to Air and Water

Dossier

Exploring Alberta’s Tar Sands: Fuelling whose economy? Subscribe

With more than 173 billion barrels of oil recoverable with current technology and more than $150 billion in committed capital investment, the Alberta tar sands around Ft. MacMurray are considered the largest industrial project on earth.

How do the Alberta tar sands affect you?

Explore the effects, debates and ideologies surrounding this controversial topic through our ever growing media collection.

Add to the mix by contributing your own perspectives right here!

Film

How the Oil Sands Got to the Great Lakes Basin: Pipelines, Refineries and Emissions to Air and Water

Your browser does not support inline frames or is currently configured not to display inline frames.

Contributed by chris arsenault

Director:

the Munk Centre at University of Toronto

License:

Attribution (by)

Producer:

University of Toronto

Refineries in the Great Lakes Basin are rapidly expanding to accommodate crude oil from the Alberta oil sands. This conference, "How the Oil Sands Got to the Great Lakes Basin: Pipelines, Refineries and Emissions to Air And Water," was intended to provide an opportunity, in a university setting, to inform public opinion about the impacts of refinery expansion in the Basin, drawing on data analysis, shared information and public discussion. Emphasis was placed on the cumulative effect of refinery expansions on water quality, air quality and human and non-human downwind communities in the Basin. The conference provided a bilateral opportunity for interactive public comment and dialogue from experts involved in a wide range of disciplines.

The conference began with a presentation of the conference paper by the author, journalist David Israelson. Panel members representing government, environmental sciences, law, non-government organizations, academia, industry and the business community shared points of view on issues relating to the refinery expansion.