It is dangerous territory to venture into opinions about the prudence of oil sands mining and oil shale mining.  But the other side continues to post such unmitigated nonsense on their sites that it behoves me to comment. 

When I first came to America in the late 1970s, oil shales was the hot topic.  I even supervised the master’s thesis of a young civil engineer at the university in Tucson: he was working on the problem of trafficability of large equipment on oil shale tailings.  We worked with a professor who had been the consultant to NASA on the traffic ability of lunar landing vehicles. 

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A new report from the Globe and Mail states that sixteen Canadian mining companies have applied to dispose of mine tailings in lakes across the country.  The report concludes:

Byng Giraud, vice-president of policy and communications for the B.C. Mining Association, six of whose members are among the companies applying for permits, said putting tailings in bodies of water is often the best option available.  “We have some of the best environmental scientists in the world on this and certainly we work closely with [the Department of Fisheries and Oceans] and environmental assessment to determine what uses are the best,” he said.

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