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Thirsty for more…clean water. PHOTO: MELISSA STONE


[ EDITORIAL ] Oil and Water


It seemed 2010 was a year filled with pe- troleum-related disaster—the Gulf, Lake Michigan, the Niger delta, the Yellow Sea. Gushing crude made for dramatic headlines, but these stories were as much about water as they were about oil. In North America, we have 11.5 percent


of the world’s renewable freshwater re- sources. However, our surplus is no excuse for sloppy stewardship or lack of policy gov- erning downstream rights, ownership and access to water. Te Upper Delaware—a designated Na-


tional Wild and Scenic River—topped American Rivers’ 2010 list of America’s Most Endangered Rivers. Tis watershed, which provides drinking water for 17 mil- lion people in New York and Pennsylvania, is threatened by development of the vast Marcellus Shale natural gas field. With the spike in natural gas prices, the region has the potential to become one of


8 SPRING 2011


the U.S.’s most lucrative energy deposits. Exploration and extraction come at the cost of surface and groundwater toxicity along with soil and habitat contamination throughout the Upper Delaware catchment. In northwestern Canada, the Mackenzie


River basin rivals the scale of the Amazon and Congo rivers. Te Mackenzie is fed by a set of waterways at the epicenter of the larg- est industrial project on earth, the Alberta tar sands. Currently, between two and five barrels of


water are required for each barrel of oil ex- tracted from the sands. Tis means the tar sands draw enough water every year to meet the needs of a city of 2.5 million people. Much of that water comes from the Athabasca River, raising concerns of overdrawing the resource. Te release of tailings into the Athabasca


and the surrounding groundwater supply further intensifies pressure on the area. Tens of thousands of miles of waterways are


affected by this continual contamination of the North’s most significant watershed. Tis year marks an opportunity to clean


things up. While our understanding of bal- anced development and conservation con- tinues to expand, as canoeists, so should our awareness and responsibility for our waterways. When a project like the Canadian Heritage


Rivers System (CHRS) hits a milestone like it has in 2011, it’s worth celebrating (story on page 15). Te CHRS program operates under the notion that rivers have shaped our continent and its people. And, under its framework, the people—communities, rec- reational user groups and landowners—are responsible for designating waterways as Heritage Rivers. So hats off to organizations like American


Rivers and programs such as the CHRS for en- gaging North Americans, keeping us all from being left thirsty for more. —Michael Mechan


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