Indigenous, environment, health groups reject tailings treat-and-release guidanceOct 8 Written By Keepers of the Water For Immediate Release: October 08, 2025 ATHABASCA CHIPEWYAN FIRST NATION, MIKISEW CREE FIRST NATION, ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENCE, INDIGENOUS CLIMATE ACTION, KEEPERS OF THE WATER, CANADIAN PARKS AND WILDERNESS SOCIETY NORTHERN ALBERTA, ALBERTA WILDERNESS ASSOCIATION, CANADIAN ASSOCIATION OF PHYSICIANS FOR THE ENVIRONMENT – ALBERTA COMMITTEE, COUNCIL OF CANADIANS, EDMONTON CHAPTER Two years of Alberta’s inaction on toxic tailings requires federal leadership to protect downstream communities On the two-year anniversary of Imperial Oil’s hidden toxic tailings leaks coming to light, communities and advocates downstream from the oil sands are pushing back against weak tailings treatment recommendations from an industry-driven provincial committee. Indigenous, environment and health groups, including Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation, Mikisew Cree First Nation, Keepers of the Water, Indigenous Climate Action, Environmental Defence, Alberta Wilderness Association, Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society Northern Alberta, the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment and Council of Canadians, Edmonton Chapter demand industry and Crown governments pursue alternatives to treat-and-release that are backed by credible science and supported by downstream communities. The latest environmental mandate letter from Premier Smith and the new recommendations made by a provincial committee to release treated oil sands tailings into the Peace Athabasca watershed would put communities and ecosystems at serious risk and fail to provide a real solution to the province’s growing tailings issue. If adopted, hazardous waste could make its way into waterways that people and ecosystems rely on. While the committee claims to have met with Indigenous peoples, it is unclear which communities they are meeting with. Downstream nations have established criteria for any treated tailings, but this is not reflected anywhere in the report. Meaningful consultation, including free, prior and informed consent with Cree, Métis and Dene peoples, is desperately needed. Recommendations that would enable the province to release partially-treated tailings into the Athabasca River using unproven technology are unacceptable and would put downstream communities and the local environment at great risk. If technical solutions do materialize, the province should require industry to reuse treated water in their production process, to avoid ongoing freshwater removals from watersheds already experiencing critically low water levels. Quotes: Chief Allan Adam of Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation, said:
“This province works backwards. The oil industry has been unregulated for decades, which has allowed them to create huge lakes of toxic waste. ACFN is not planning to sit back and let them try to regulate their way out of this mess without our approval. If the province wants to move ahead to use these recommendations, we will pull out all the tools we have. ACFN has Tu Bet’a Ts’ena, setting out our expectations concerning water. As it stands now, we are not meeting with this government to talk about treatment and release regulations, and we will never accept tailings pits as a permanent solution. They still haven’t given a full report on the actual impacts of the tailings spill [from two years ago] on the river.” Chief Billy-Joe Tuccaro of Mikisew Cree First Nation, said:
“For decades the mantra of both industry and government has been profits over people. As Chief of the Mikisew Cree First Nation, I must take a stand against the status quo to protect our people. The higher-than-average incidences of cancer in Fort Chipewyan speak for themselves, and Alberta’s decision to move forward on regulating treat-and-release of tailings is an attempt to solve an industry-wide problem at our expense. Without a human health and ecological risk assessment for tailings management options and a cumulative impact risk assessment for the Peace-Athabasca Delta, the data is not there to show this is safe. Treat-and-release is not an acceptable option, and we will not stay idle in the face of decisions that threaten our health and integrity as a people.” Melanie Dene, Managing Director with Indigenous Climate Action, said: “Communities are being threatened with this possible release of toxic tailings. There is so much conflict of interest in this committee and its noncommittal report. Much like the AER over the years, these committee members who were former CEOs of the major tar sands companies have a vested interest in weak standards for dumping their tailings mess into the Athabasca, and supposedly returning these toxic tailings sites to communities – who will have to deal with the cleanup.” Jesse Cardinal, Executive Director of Keepers of the Water, said: “Keepers of the Water is against any dumping of treated tailings into the Athabasca River. We expect the Alberta Energy Regulator to create policies that allow for the companies to create a closed loop system and recycle all the treated tailings they are proposing to dump, which will massively reduce the use of fresh water and polluting of our land and waters.” Cassie Barker, Senior Program Manager, Toxics at Environmental Defence, said: “This report is more of a wish and a dream than a plan for the billions of litres of toxic tailings. Expanding production to fill a new pipeline will just exacerbate this tailings problem. Given that no company has a credible cleanup plan, and that the oil and gas industry has taken five decades to clean up 0.1 per cent of their mess, communities are rightfully skeptical of the claims that this water can be treated to the point that it would be suitable for environmental release.” Kaitlyn Philip, Boreal Program Manager at Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society Northern Alberta, said: “The narrative of this report urging the expedited approval of treat-and-release is dangerous. If the release of treated tailings into the Athabasca River were to go wrong, it could have devastating impacts for downstream communities, wildlife, and entire ecosystems. Solutions must be backed by strong, credible science, and guided by downstream Indigenous communities. Many downstream communities have already made it clear they don’t support treat-and-release. That needs to be respected.” Pamela Narváez-Torres, Conservation Specialist at the Alberta Wilderness Association, said: “Albertans deserve more than a shortcut solution to the 1.4 trillion litres of toxic tailings sitting in northern Alberta. Right now there are no proven solutions for this problem, and dumping “treated” tailings into the Athabasca River should never be considered an option. Decisions about tailings must be guided by science, Indigenous consultation, and a precautionary approach that puts the river and downstream communities first.” Dr. Julia Sawatzky, emergency medicine resident physician, co-chair of Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment – Alberta Committee, said: “We know that tailings contain toxic substances known to cause cancer and harm human development, including hazardous levels of at least five of the World Health Organization’s chemicals of major public concern. There is no feasible way to treat billions of litres of this highly toxic water and release it safely into a river that more than 154,000 people depend on for water. This plan risks irreversibly harming these communities now and for generations to come. The province should not take such a high-stakes gamble with people’s health and wellbeing.” Background: In October 2023, downstream communities learned through the media that Imperial Oil and the Alberta Energy Regulator hid years of large toxic tailings leaks to groundwater at the Kearl mine site. On October 2, Premier Smith marked the 2-year anniversary of these hidden tailings leaks coming to light with a new environmental mandate letter seeking to “accelerate” a “finalized” tailings strategy, but this would be based on unproven industry treatment methods. The Alberta Oil Sands Mine Water Steering Committee, mostly made up of industry representatives, has recommended that the government fast-track the creation of standards that would allow treated tailings to be released into the Athabasca River. However, there is no proven treatment technology that exists or is in place to treat tailings waste adequately: The federal government already facilitates a process known as the Crown-Indigenous Working Group (CIWG), which was formed in response to concerns from Indigenous communities over the potential release of treated tailings into the Athabasca River. CIWG includes representation from nine Indigenous communities within and downstream of the oilsands area, whereas Alberta’s latest committee only features a single Indigenous representative. In February 2025, Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) and CWIG published a discussion paper: Path forward for evaluating policy options for managing the accumulation of oil sands mine water in tailings ponds, which explores alternatives to treat and release that “avoid, accommodate or mitigate impacts” to the health and rights of Indigenous communities. Alberta’s decision to pursue treat and release directly undermines the important work being done by CWIG. First Nations have begun to establish criteria for water quality and quality, including the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nations Water Policy, and technical criteria being established by downstream nations. The tailings occupy 300 square kilometers of land, three times the size of the City of Vancouver, and is enough toxic waste from the tar sands to fill up Lake Louise 2,000 times over. As of 2023, only 104.3 hectares, or 0.1 per cent of the oil sands has received a formal reclamation certificate from the provincial regulator, and over 110,000 hectares, or 1,010 km² of boreal forest have been disturbed by oilsands mining since the 1960s. The cost to remediate the waste on the landscape is estimated by the regulator to be over $260 billion. Industry has put less than 1 per cent aside of the multi-billion dollar clean up costs for the tar sands, creating a massive financial liability to Alberta and Canadian taxpayers.
– 30 – For more information or to request an interview, please contact: Mira Merchant, Environmental Defence, media@environmentaldefence.ca Jesse Cardinal, Keepers of the Water, ed@keepersofthewater.ca Jessica Christmas, Indigenous Climate Action, media@indgenousclimateaction.com
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