Project Details...
ATHABASCA ---------------- Athabasca is an enormous expanse of boreal forest, wetland and river valleys in Northern Alberta, Canada. Beneath its surface lies two and a half trillion barrels of oil in the form of oil sands*; thought to be the largest accumulation of oil left on earth. Oil sands are very different from conventional oil; they are difficult to liberate from the earth, are more harmful to the environment, require vast amounts of energy, water and money to produce and are only profitable to exploit when market oil prices are high. These images focus on the boom in the oil sands industry and the devastating effect it is having on the fragile boreal forest and on the population of Northern Alberta. The oil sands represent the cross roads at which the world lies, where we can either invest more money in cleaner energy or choose to fund dirtier fuels than we use today. This work is part of a long-term series entitled 'Inescapable Limits'. *also known as tar sands
Bitumen
Semi-solid bitumen seeping out of the ground at an old disused oil sands mine, on the outskirts of Fort McMurray.
Trembling Aspen. Boreal Forest, Northern Alberta
Syncrude, Mildred Lake
Syncrude is the largest oil sands facility in the world and the third largest producer of greenhouse gases in Canada. They produced 107 million barrels of oil in 2010. Oil sands production releases three times more greenhouse gases than conventional oil sources. This landscape was originally covered with natural boreal forest. The trees in the foreground were planted in the 1980's as an experiment to see if the forest could be re-established.
A place to picnic
Looking across Mildred lake to Syncrude's processing facilities
Krupp Bucket-Wheel Reclaimer
560 feet long, the reclaimer used to shift the oil sands along conveyor belts to be processed. The mines are now so big that these huge machines have been replaced by dozens of CAT trucks
CAT 797B
Pat McCormick standing in front of a CAT 797B Truck, one of the largest in the World, at Shell's Albian Sands Mine. These trucks can carry 380 tonnes of oil sand at one time; when fully loaded they weigh more than a Boeing 747. Its wheels are 12 feet high and it uses more than 65 gallons of fuel an hour.
Adam, CAT Engineer.
Shell's Albian Sands Mine, Alberta
Overburden
Trees, bushes, grass, soil and rock are all referred to as 'overburden' - which must be removed to reach the oil sand layer below. These piles of wood are what remain after the forest has been cleared. A wall of sand is visible in the distance. This is Shell's Albian Sands Mine.
Overburden II
Dead Water
Tailings water is left over after the removal of the bitumen from the oil sands. This water contains so much mercury and other toxins it cannot be released back into the Athabasca river from which it came. The water is so dangerous to bird life that propane cannons explode every few minutes to act as a deterrent. Tailings ponds now cover over 50 square kilometres and are growing rapidly.
The Aftermath
Syncrude’s tailings and sand deposition area. This whole area is constantly changing on a daily basis as bulldozers spread out the processed sand. There is no trace of the original forest that once stood here.
1000 km to the Sea
After the boreal forest has been completely cleared and the bitumen has been extracted from the sand below, huge man-made dunes are left behind.
Pipelines
These pipelines bring crude bitumen south to be processed at upgrading facilities north of Edmonton
Athabasca Lodge
Modular, prefabricated worker’s camps are dotted throughout the boreal forest to house the thousands of workers needed to construct new oil sand processing facilities.
Workers Camp
Shift Change
Workers driving on Highway 63 to and from the oil sands mines north of Fort McMurray. The mines run 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
Don van Hout, Pembina Institute.
Don canoed the length of the Athabasca river to raise awareness of the pollution being caused by the oil sands. “Right now the scale and pace of development here is out of control. We need to put on the brakes and deal with this horrible environmental legacy we have created for ourselves. If we keep approving new developments, we will develop 23% of Alberta to oil sands, which is roughly the same size as Florida. The majority of the sands are within the Athabasca watershed, so not only are we sacrificing the river, but we don't know what the downstream impacts of the developments are. And this whole boreal ecosystem, the most amazing water purifier there is, is just being pushed up in a pile.”
Chief Jim Boucher
Jim is the Chief of Fort McKay, an indigenous community located 65km North of Fort McMurray. He was also the CEO of the Fort McKay Group of Companies which services the oil sands industry and has revenues in excess of $100 million. “I always wonder what people mean when they talk about a loss of a traditional way of life. What does that mean? Does that mean we should make an imprint of our lives and that is how we must remain? Because that’s not the way things have happened round here. We’re not pickles, we can’t be preserved forever!”
George Poitras, Mikisew Cree First Nation
“When you look at our collective issues as indigenous people in this region, we've the most to lose. Everything is at stake for us, because we don't benefit the same way as the city of Fort McMurray does or the average person who comes into the region does. If tomorrow, the price of oil is not sufficient and the oil companies shut down, this would be a ghost town. And we'll still be here, trying to live off the land, dealing with the water issues and dealing with the cancers caused by the pollution. We gain the least out of all this and socially we're always at the bottom of the totem pole and the most marginalised."
Shanti Blacklock, 26
“I’ll tell you a story, I’ve been homeless since the age of 16, I’ve lived on the streets ever since. My mum’s a drunk; my dad’s a drunk. I was given up for adoption. I’m barely getting by, everyday I struggle. I went from one abusive relationship to another, I have five children, but they’ve all been taken from me. I turned to crack and I was drinking heavily. I was raped, I was molested, I was abused.”
35km Traffic Jam
A slow moving traffic jam 35km long heading into Fort McMurray. Highway 63 is the only road to and from the oil sands plants and is often clogged up at shift change in the morning and evening. This is quite a surreal sight in such a remote and sparsely populated part of Canada.
Highway 63
Sanjaya Mangalagama, 19
Employers have had difficulty competing with the high wages that the oil companies can pay so they recruit staff from overseas. Sanjaya Mangalagama (19) was recruited directly from Sri Lanka to work as a chef at Moxies Grill. “Fort McMurray is a great place to work, but you can’t bring your family here to live long term. It’s too expensive and life is difficult here. Most people come to work, save money and then leave.”
Cheryl Wilkes, Fort McMurray
Cheryl Wilkes, left a $50,000 job with Pepsi in Calgary, to work as a waitress in Show Girls, a strip club in Fort McMurray. She was able to earn more than $8,000 a month in tips.
Dave, Fort McMurray
He moved to Fort McMurray from Dublin, Ireland in 1981. He worked as a brick layer for a few years, but now works as a driver for Diversified buses, bringing oil workers back and forth to the plants.
Mohamed Bihi, Fort McMurray
Mohamed is a Somali Refugee who works for Diversified Buses driving oil workers to and from the oil sands plants. "How long is this going to last? Everyone is asking that question, but nobody knows. It all depends on the price of oil."
The Bridge to Nowhere
This bridge carries workers across the Athabasca river to the oil sands plants north of Fort McMurray. For many years after the bridge was built, the road ended on the far side of the river. Hence it was nicknamed The Bridge to Nowhere.
The Interruption
The rhythm of a line of trees is interrupted by a worker's camp on the banks of the Athabasca River
What Lies Beneath
Traces
Telephone lines and quad bike tracks cut their way through the boreal forest on the outskirts of Fort McMurray.
Sunrise over Fort McMurray
This is the only city or town of significance in the region. Oil sands workers not living in on-site camps live here. It has some of the highest house prices in North America and the cost of living is incredibly high given it's remote location. As a result it's often referred to as 'Fort McMoney'.
Oil Sands Hotel, Fort McMurray
Boomtown Casino
Green Pastures, Still Waters
“Besides the weather, everything here is perfect.”
Carlos Reyes, who was hired directly from Venezuela to work in the oil sands facilities, standing outside his new $583,000 house.
Shot up
Russel Langenhoff in front of his house, that was badly damaged by a freak hailstorm on July 29th 2007. $15m worth of damage was caused in the area in 15 minutes. The other side of the road didn't get hit. The weather can be very extreme in Northern Alberta.
Cathy Harris, Salvation Army, Fort McMurray.
Cathy's job is to deal with the large number of homeless people in Fort McMurray. She runs the Community Response Vehicle that holds a mobile soup kitchen. In the winter the Salvation Army and other organisations struggle to house the growing number of homeless. No one can be left sleeping on the streets at night when the temperatures drop to minus 40°C.
Millennium Drive
Forest clearance in the outskirts of Fort McMurray to make way for new housing developments. The town's population has grown rapidly and there is a severe housing shortage.
New Homes, Fort McMurray
Steve Bernard
Steve with his 1973 Airstream. He's been living at the Tower Road Campground for 5 years as he can't afford to buy a house. As a result he's not recognised as part of the local population. He lives here all year round and has triple insulated his trailer to keep it warm during the winter months when temperatures can get as low as minus 40C.
Fort McMurray Trailer Park
A trailer park in downtown Fort McMurray, with new apartments in the background. There is a large income disparity between people earning high wages with the oil sands companies and those trying to survive in one of the most expensive towns in Canada.
Fort McMurray Heritage Day
The town can be a great place to live for families, especially those who have come from overseas. Oil sands companies are looking abroad for skilled workers to take up jobs that cannot be filled by Canadians. It offers foreign families a perfect opportunity to come to Canada and earn very high wages and establish their lives there.
Fort McMurray Heritage Day
Fort McMurray can also be a lonely place for many. Young men without families are lured to the town by high wages, but can get caught up in the culture of working long hours and spending their few days off drinking, taking drugs and going to the strip clubs. Many older men come to the town too, and get little time to return home to see their families.
Dial:74-Party
As the oil sands industry is a male dominated career, the number of men in Fort McMurray far exceeds the number of women.
Shay, Keyano College, Fort McMurray
Shay was training to become a licensed truck driver in the oil sands mines when this photo was taken. Young men are lured by the high wages paid in the petrochemical industry. Once qualified, a driver can earn upwards of $100,000 a year.
Karen, 15
"Many kids go out and do drugs at lunch; it's bad. It's because they have too much money and they don't know what to do with it. Most of the kids talk about how they are gonna get out of here, as fast as they can. Almost none of my friends like it here. And they talk about how as soon as they graduate; they are going to go somewhere else.”
Isabelle Doblanko
"I’ve been through two oil sand booms, because when I came in ’75, there was a boom right after that; so there were line-ups in the bank, line-ups in the stores, but it wasn’t too bad as you always knew somebody. But now when you’re in the line-ups these days, you don’t know anybody. It’s gone from being a small community, and it’s now a city. I think that people maybe don’t buy into the city, they don’t clean up their streets, they don’t have that same ownership as we did when it was smaller. Most people don’t live here for any length of time, they live here for two to five years and then they go somewhere else. It’s like a revolving door, of people coming and going."
Alan's Home, Downtown Fort McMurray
Alan traveled from Newfoundland to Fort McMurray in the hope that he could get work with one of the oil companies. However, like many others, he lacked the necessary training to get a job. So he ended up sleeping rough on a patch of land in the centre of the town. There is an ever growing homeless population in the town, which is a major concern during the winter months when temperatures plunge below zero.
The Mass of Rich Men
Graffiti on the toilet wall of Fort McMurray's public library. There is anger amongst many people who live there and who do not work in the oil sands industry or earn the high wages paid by the oil companies. They are being forced out of the town as the cost of living soars. The original quote from "Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell reads: "The mass of the rich and the poor are differentiated by their incomes and nothing else, and the average millionaire is only the average dishwasher dressed in a new suit. Change places, and handy dandy, which is the justice, which is the thief?"
Marcel & Carla
Salvation Army Drop-in Centre, Fort McMurray
Remembering
A memorial on the side of Highway 63. The highway is the main artery between the oil sands developments, Fort McMurray and Edmonton. Due to the high volume of traffic and the long journeys tired oil workers drive everyday, road accidents are very high.
Abasand Ruins
The ruins of old mining facilities at Abasand mine. The oil sands industry has gone through a number of booms and busts cycles as global oil prices have risen and fallen. Due to the high cost of producing oil from oil sands, the industry needs high market prices to operate profitably.
Statement
“We pledge to return the land we disturb to a stable, biologically self sustaining state. This means creating a landscape that has a productive capability equal to, if not better than, its condition before mining.” Statement by Syncrude.