Growing up and working in McMurray, we were always mindful of impacts from human activity. Interesting to see that some of those unintended consequences can be positive for the environment.
You grew up in FMM? Cool! I lived there for a mere 3 years and those years were some of the most formative of my adult life.
I wish to impress on people the fact that our place in Nature introduces both positives and negatives in terms of overall impact on the environment in which we exist. We are in desperate need of a balanced less pessimistic perspective on "cost vs benefit".
As a technician working on the big ore haulers, the biggest source of “nightmares” are the emission control systems, especially the DEF fluid injection systems used to reduce/eliminate NOx emissions due to the freezing temperatures encountered in the Fort McMurray region. All the hoses have a built-in heat trace and when shutting down the equipment, a pump automatically starts to evacuate all the liquid from the system to prevent damage. The master lock out switch can only be turned off after this purging cycle is completed, which can take 10-15 minutes. With operation time being closely monitored, equipment is run as long as possible and shutdown only a few minutes before the operators are picked up by the crew buses at the end of their shift. As you well know, safety protocols require all systems to be shutdown and the master disconnect switches to be turned off when leaving equipment, so the DEF systems are never completely purged. This sets an emissions system fault code that is registered automatically with the manufacturer and can only be cleared by a factory authorized technician with the use of a laptop and a very specific passcode. This only resets the code and allows the unit to run again, but the code is registered forever in the manufacturer data bank. All this trouble to eliminate and monitor a “pollutant” that is actually beneficial for the environment.
Thank you. No one seems to ever consider the fact that most fugitive dust emissions in Western Canada and especially the Prairie region, has significant alkalinity or acid gas neutralization potential. It is heresy for environmental engineers and scientists to ever challenge the negative bias in our regulatory framework.
How ironic that the so-called "dirtiest" method of oil production is offsetting its CO2 emissions and benefiting the flora and fauna of the local region at the same time. Without even trying.
I grew up in northern Saskatchewan from the age of nine, so we have some geographical history in common.
And I suspect that the westerlies manage to disperse some of these carbonate and nitrate enriched plumes out over the Saskatchewan border. One of these days, Saskatchewan will develop is own oil sands that extends over its far northwest border.
I hope they do. Though I haven't lived in Saskatchewan since 1988. I'm a petroleum geoscientist and have lived in south Louisiana since 1992. I also have a Substack publication, Trevor's Substack, with essays on energy/climate, memoir, and athletics. Most recent is some commentary on the Pisew fire that caused a 10-day evacuation of my hometown, La Ronge.
This raises further the topic of human NOx and dust emissions working to accelerate productivity of the biosphere well beyond just the oil sands region of Alberta. It is important that people understand that human activity both benefits and impacts negatively Mother Nature.
Wow, what a great article Joseph. I come from a farming area of southern Manitoba where there are lots of bluffs of trees for shelter, open cropland and bodies of water in potholes. We have seen several cow moose with twins and triplets and white tailed deer with twins and triplets. I never really thought much about how a rich environment in shelter, water and feed sources would play into multiple births.
The connection between NOX emissions and calcium nitrate fertilizer should be an extremely imortant link to be understood by all Canadians and in particular, the Carbon Climate Cult.
Thank you Glenn. As a rancher, I am intimately acquainted with the idea that it takes an exceptional amount of highly available - high quality feed for a bear or moose to support triplets or more. Truly indications of an optimal environmental state.
My formative years were also spent in McMurray, Joseph, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading this. Who knows; perhaps when Alberta becomes Independent, these facts can be used to our advantage (at considerably less expense than carbon capture and sequestration) ... if 'green' marketing is even a factor given Trump calling the climate scam exactly what it is: the grift.
This is fascinating! Thanks again, Joseph.
Growing up and working in McMurray, we were always mindful of impacts from human activity. Interesting to see that some of those unintended consequences can be positive for the environment.
You grew up in FMM? Cool! I lived there for a mere 3 years and those years were some of the most formative of my adult life.
I wish to impress on people the fact that our place in Nature introduces both positives and negatives in terms of overall impact on the environment in which we exist. We are in desperate need of a balanced less pessimistic perspective on "cost vs benefit".
I would love helping you balance out those blockheads, Joseph.
As a technician working on the big ore haulers, the biggest source of “nightmares” are the emission control systems, especially the DEF fluid injection systems used to reduce/eliminate NOx emissions due to the freezing temperatures encountered in the Fort McMurray region. All the hoses have a built-in heat trace and when shutting down the equipment, a pump automatically starts to evacuate all the liquid from the system to prevent damage. The master lock out switch can only be turned off after this purging cycle is completed, which can take 10-15 minutes. With operation time being closely monitored, equipment is run as long as possible and shutdown only a few minutes before the operators are picked up by the crew buses at the end of their shift. As you well know, safety protocols require all systems to be shutdown and the master disconnect switches to be turned off when leaving equipment, so the DEF systems are never completely purged. This sets an emissions system fault code that is registered automatically with the manufacturer and can only be cleared by a factory authorized technician with the use of a laptop and a very specific passcode. This only resets the code and allows the unit to run again, but the code is registered forever in the manufacturer data bank. All this trouble to eliminate and monitor a “pollutant” that is actually beneficial for the environment.
Thank you. No one seems to ever consider the fact that most fugitive dust emissions in Western Canada and especially the Prairie region, has significant alkalinity or acid gas neutralization potential. It is heresy for environmental engineers and scientists to ever challenge the negative bias in our regulatory framework.
How ironic that the so-called "dirtiest" method of oil production is offsetting its CO2 emissions and benefiting the flora and fauna of the local region at the same time. Without even trying.
I grew up in northern Saskatchewan from the age of nine, so we have some geographical history in common.
And I suspect that the westerlies manage to disperse some of these carbonate and nitrate enriched plumes out over the Saskatchewan border. One of these days, Saskatchewan will develop is own oil sands that extends over its far northwest border.
I hope they do. Though I haven't lived in Saskatchewan since 1988. I'm a petroleum geoscientist and have lived in south Louisiana since 1992. I also have a Substack publication, Trevor's Substack, with essays on energy/climate, memoir, and athletics. Most recent is some commentary on the Pisew fire that caused a 10-day evacuation of my hometown, La Ronge.
https://open.substack.com/pub/trevorcasper/p/summer-heat?r=1qevah&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
Well, that’s crazy and ironic at the same time.
mining is improving nitrogen fertilization in the local area!
Great info—funny how unintended consequences have a habit of throwing curveballs... sometimes the most interesting discoveries start with ‘Oops.’
This raises further the topic of human NOx and dust emissions working to accelerate productivity of the biosphere well beyond just the oil sands region of Alberta. It is important that people understand that human activity both benefits and impacts negatively Mother Nature.
Very interesting.
Wow, what a great article Joseph. I come from a farming area of southern Manitoba where there are lots of bluffs of trees for shelter, open cropland and bodies of water in potholes. We have seen several cow moose with twins and triplets and white tailed deer with twins and triplets. I never really thought much about how a rich environment in shelter, water and feed sources would play into multiple births.
The connection between NOX emissions and calcium nitrate fertilizer should be an extremely imortant link to be understood by all Canadians and in particular, the Carbon Climate Cult.
Thank you Glenn. As a rancher, I am intimately acquainted with the idea that it takes an exceptional amount of highly available - high quality feed for a bear or moose to support triplets or more. Truly indications of an optimal environmental state.
My formative years were also spent in McMurray, Joseph, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading this. Who knows; perhaps when Alberta becomes Independent, these facts can be used to our advantage (at considerably less expense than carbon capture and sequestration) ... if 'green' marketing is even a factor given Trump calling the climate scam exactly what it is: the grift.