Oil sands pollute as much as a city

Canada's oil sands yield fossil fuels only after consuming fossil fuels. Indeed, oil sand extraction operations can account for as much pollution as a mid-size city or a large power plant. Environment Canada, the country's environmental agency, used satellites to measure sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide levels in a 30 kilometers (19 miles) by 50 kilometers (31 miles) area surrounding an oil sands mine in Alberta, Canada. "For both gasses, the levels are comparable to what satellites see over a large power plant - or for nitrogen dioxide, comparable to what they see over some medium-sized cities," said Chris McLinden, a research scientist with Environment Canada, in a press release. "It stands out above what's around it, out in the wilderness, but one thing we wanted to try to do was put it in context." Not only are the pollution levels high, they are increasing. Satellite data archives revealed pollution levels increased 10 percent each year between 2005 and 2010. "You'd certainly want to keep monitoring that source if it's increasing at that rate," McLinden said. "There are new mines being put in, they're pulling out more oil." Previous studies had measured limited areas or sectors of the oil sands operation. Satellite data allowed measurements to account for all sources of pollution from the giant dump trucks to the massive bitumen refining facilities. The satellites measured the patterns of wavelengths of sunlight reflected from the Earth and passing through the haze about the oil sands. Different patterns indicated which pollutant's fingerprints were in the atmosphere. The Environment Canada report was published in Geophysical Research Letters.