Thread by @AlienorR2

🚨Breaking: The federal government just provided a public update about their plan to allow oil companies in the tar sands to release their toxic waste into the Athabasca River - a plan opposed by downstream Indigenous nations.

In short: the release option is still on the table.

Full paper here: canada.ca/en/environment…

I will let the impacted nations comment on the alternatives considered and the quality of the engagement process.

The situation as a whole, however, is a problem. 🚩🚩🚩

Oil companies created massive lakes of toxic sludge (tailings ponds), without a plan for how they would clean them up. This now forces Indigenous communities downstream to consider a risky proposal - accepting the release of industrial wastewater into the Athabasca River!

Downstream communities have repeatedly publicly opposed the idea. Concerns over safety for their health and for the environment. Today’s update comes after a massive leak from Imperial Oil’s toxic tailings threatened the water and food supplies of several downstream communities.

Release isn’t the only way to deal with the toxic tailings, but it is the cheapest one, which is why the industry has been working hard to keep it on the table.

Successive federal and provincial governments rubber-stamped every project in the tar sands for decades without worrying about how it would affect the Indigenous communities downstream.
#EnvironmentalRacism

This situation was avoidable, yet...

Now that the problem is 1.4 trillion litres large - too big to ignore - they are putting the onus on the affected community to think of alternative approaches.