Where oil and water mix = the Alberta oil sands = home to several First Nations

[L. Coyote]

Where oil and water mix

Fort McKay lies in the heart of the Alberta oil sands. The region is also home to several First Nations, people making a living on the revenue resource projects generate but afraid of the environmental damage they are causing. Shawn McCarthy reports from communities caught between big money and growing fear

Shawn McCarthy FORT McKAY, ALTA. The Globe and Mail Friday, Nov. 06, 2015

Clara Mercer ambles slowly down a gravel road a few kilometres from her home. She is hunting for the bushes that have long provided the indigenous people of northeastern Alberta with staples of their diet.

Now a grandmother, she has gathered blueberries and wild cranberries along this ridge since she was a girl. As she walks, she identifies plants with medicinal properties – Labrador tea, stinging nettle and juniper. Her main quarry, however, proves elusive. “There used to be a lot of berries here,” she says softly, almost to herself, “but now it’s all torn up.”

An access road and pipeline right-of-way now run straight through the berry patch – and most of what little still grows here in the summer is covered with dust. .........

[Fred Sanders]

1. The footprint of the right of way of pipeline construction for thousands of miles is huge.

If it is going to be oil trains, then the oil trains need to be heavily regulated including mandated construction at private industry cost of new rail spur lines around populated or industrial areas.