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The Economic Side of Alberta's Tar Sands Production
3Ceco.com CANADA - Second only to the oil reserves of Saudi Arabia, the tar sands deposits in the province of Alberta have been described in Time Magazine as Canada's "greatest buried treasure" to satisfy the world's demand for petroleum.
Long deemed an untenable natural resource due to the financial and environmental cost of tar sands production, soaring global oil prices have placed new wealth into the industry of Alberta, and renewed vigor into tar sands production.
According to the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, investment into Alberta's tar sands hit $14b in 2006. Opponents to Alberta's booming trade in tar sands however point out that production of this resource requires a considerable amount of fresh water, which in turn ends up spent in trailing ponds, or open air toxic lakes.
For example, mining uses twice the amount of fresh water then the entire city of Calgary, and the trailing ponds span up to 50 square kilometers. Considered on of the largest man-made structures, trailing ponds can be seen from space. For the province of Alberta however, the need for economic growth, jobs for its citizens and prosperity have placed it under the spotlight of the world to see to question their energy usage in chasing last century's petroleum driven economic model.
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