ORIGINAL: Business Insider
May 18, 201
When reaching out to Alberta oil sands companies before a trip to Canada last month I thought all of them mined oil the same way — they don't.
The open mining most people think of when they picture the oil sands is just one way of extracting crude from the ground, but it is without a doubt the most dramatic. And we had to see it.
After being refused a mine tour and any type of access to a mining site or equipment, Business Insider rented a plane that I used to see everything I could of the mines on my own.
Restricted to flying no lower than 1,000 feet above the ground, I spent nearly two hours leaning out the window of a small Cessna 172 with a long lens, snapping pictures and trying to keep warm.
The oil sands hold up to two trillion barrels of oil spread over more than 54,000 square miles, making it the second largest oil deposit in the world after Saudi Arabia.
The amount of energy spent recovering that oil and the pollution created in refining it is immense and the impact on the environment profound.
Limiting that impact is important as oil companies are required by law to return the land to its original condition when they're done mining, but the amount of time required to do that has long been criticized.
Today's environmental focus at the mining companies is figuring out how to get the land back to its original state more quickly and efficiently.
And that is something that everyone who lives and works near the oil sands would be happy to see.
It used to be that people would come to work the mines for a couple of years and go back where they came from. That is changing as people put down roots and raise their children and grandchildren.
About 140,000 people are involved in working the oil sands with 100,000 more jobs expected in the next five years.
So, no matter how you feel about the oil sands or the burning of all that oil, you can be sure that as long as there's a market for it and people need jobs, the oil companies aren't going anywhere.
I also need to extend a sincere thanks to former oil sands worker Mike Pearson whose experience and insights proved invaluable.
To get a look at the oil sand mines we rented this Cessna 172 which the pilot was allowed to bring down to 1,000 feet — from there, through the open window and with a long lens we were able to see what really goes on in one of the most controversial places on the planet
The Alberta oil sands are spread across more than 54,000 square miles but we're taking a look at just a small part of that — the red line is an approximate outline of the entire deposit — the green is where we'll be flying
Most of the Athabasca oil sands lie just north of Fort McMurray — the small city is bordered on the east by Rt 63 — the Clearwater River to the west and the south— and the Athabasca River to the north
A lot of the oil money stops here first — this is Suncor Oil's recently remodeled $180 million Community Leisure Center — it's set to receive another $117 million expansion in September 2012
Housing is tough to find, and expensive, averaging about $770,000 — the newly built apartments at the top were abruptly condemned forcing police to evict tenants without their belongings one night last winter
Just up the Athabasca River is Suncor's upgrader — this is one of the sites where the oil from the oil sands is converted into synthetic crude
This is done by heating the raw oil, called bitumen, in a process called coking and produces the smoke that hovers about the whole area and a smell that fills the cockpit of the plane
Here are some small piles of coke
And here is one very immense pile of coke waiting to be used or sold as fuel for smelting iron
After it's coked, the oil is "cracked" to break the heavy parts down into lighter more desirable petroleum products
Cracked, coked and lighter, what's left gets sent to a tower like this, where the inside is hotter at the top than the bottom, forcing dense material down and lighter petroleum products up
Then everything is exposed to hot, high pressure gas that removes even more impurities like sulfur
The sulfur would normally then be sold
But a glut in the sulfur market is keeping prices low, and in the meantime mountains of it continue to grow
Once the oil is "upgraded" it will go to a storage tank like this one currently under construction
But that is all at the end of a process that begins here in the strip mine
This is how the oil sands have been harvested since 1967
There were only two companies working the sands in 1998 and local officials were concerned even those would be forced to close
But not long after that oil prices rose, the Canadian government restructured its royalty system, and new technology caused a huge boom
From small companies to conglomerates like Shell — each outfit starts off the same way
Then they scrape away the shallow layer of leafy, peaty topsoil called muskeg
Then the trucks and shovels come in to scoop up the oil sand— that shovel is electric, runs on 15,000 volts — and scoops up 90 tons in one load — it takes about 2.5 tons of sand to produce one barrel of oil
The Cat 797 dump trucks are the largest in the world and and can haul 1 million pounds in a single load — more than a fully loaded Boeing 747
And the dump trucks are everywhere out here
Carrying the chunks of oil sand
Often across bridges like these, which are supposed to be the strongest in the world
To crushing plants like this, which break up the chunks into a fine mixture that can be transported along the conveyor belts below
The conveyors take the sand to be conditioned — the first step in separating it from the oil
Conditioning is just mixing the oil sand with water — creating what's called a slurry — where the oil begins to part from the sand
The slurry is then piped to containers where it separates into three parts: Oil froth on top — sand on the bottom — oil, sand, clay, and water in the middle
The sand and water mixture in the middle is pumped to open storage areas called tailings ponds
The ponds are vast and some look more like lakes
Most ponds are coated in a sheen of oil that can be deadly to waterfowl, like ducks and geese, that land on its surface
To help keep birds away scarecrows like this are all over the ponds
The ponds are used to settle out the solids in the oil-water mix as they slowly fall to the bottom — the chemicals and oil float to the top
The surface chemicals are skimmed across the surface using floating lines like those used in oil spills
To give an idea of the size — that dump truck passing the pond is 50-feet-long
This is what one pond looks like on the ground
And this is what the surface material looks like up close
After it's skimmed and the surface water is relatively sediment and chemical free — it's pumped from one pond to another
This clarified water is supposed to provide 90 percent of what the oil companies need to start all over again
The solids left behind will be used to reclaim the land as the operation moves on
As the sand finally dries it turns white — sound cannons still boom to scare birds away though — especially after a 2010 incident where hundreds of ducks landed on a roadside pond and died
Oil companies are required to return the land to its original condition and this reclaimed section, populated with Wood Bison, is not far from the pond
It looks a whole lot different on this side
This is Syncrude's Mildred Lake plant along Route 63 from the air
Route 63 is deadly, and a family of 7 was killed driving it the day I got there — this memorial is right across from Syncrude by the side of the road
Just north of that tribute sit these two machines some companies used in mining up until 2006 — a dragline on the left — and a gray bucketwheel to the right
Spectacularly immense, this bucketwheel is the largest crawling machine in existence
For scale, that fence post is about six-feet-tall
These bucket teeth that dug into the sand were very effective, but when the bucketwheel broke down, mining stopped — so they were phased out in favor of the shovels and trucks
There are fleets of trucks and if one breaks down another one simply takes its place, but at $5 to $6 million apiece they are not cheap
And they go through tires pretty quickly — the ones for the big dump trucks run about $45,000 apiece
At 13-feet — and 12,000 pounds each — the 797 tires are a burden to dispose of and they're put to use wherever they can be
To keep vehicles from getting bogged down in the mud, these wooden boards will often be put down
But they're not always practical, so a nearby gravel mine pumps out stone to layer the roads
The gravel mine produces its own uniquely colored pools of water
But they don't compare to the deep orange of this oil sand pit we pass in the plane moments later
The companies out here all have their own landfills
Though city officials are building a state-of-the-art incinerator as part of their modernization effort
Most oil workers live in housing like this and are bussed in to the compound from their homes and families in Fort McMurray
There are no public gas stations up by the camps and sadly even this store was closed at noon on a Sunday
Which may have been just as well because the bootie dispenser outside the door was empty
The average dump truck driver makes about $55 an hour plus overtime working the mines and the average family income here is around $190,000
That kind of money prompts many people to settle down and stay far longer than they planned — this is where the pilot lives with his parents — he asked for a photo
And just as you would imagine the people that live here are very concerned about pollution — this site was fined $275,000 for contaminating the Athabasca River just a year ago
The provincial government tests the area waters constantly
But the locals I talked to all said they'd like to see more transparency and updates on what exactly is being found and what they should watch out for
The oil sands, with its up to 2 trillion barrels of oil sitting in the ground around, is a complex place
And despite how you may feel about the immense environmental impact the oil companies may have on the world
You can be sure they're not going anywhere while there is still oil left to collect
Not all the oil produced in the sands is mined
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