Expanded oilsands monitoring planned

The impact of Alberta's oilsands on air quality, water quality and biodiversity will be monitored together under a new plan released by the federal government.

The plan, announced by Environment Minister Peter Kent on Thursday,integrates air quality and biodiversity monitoring with previously announced water quality monitoring.

The planalso boosts the number of monitoring sites andspecifically looks atimpacts downstream and downwind of development.

Kent said Ottawa will start work with theAlberta government and industry to implement the monitoring plan "almost immediately."He estimated it will cost up to $50 million a year and said it will be paid for by the oilsands industry.

"I think its very important and it will provide the facts and the science to defend the product, which some abroad are threatening to boycott,"Kentsaid after unveilingthe plan at a news conference in Ottawa.

The U.S. is currently facing pressure fromdifferent interestsas itprepares to decide whether to allow construction of a $7-billion pipeline to transport Canadian crude oil to the U.S. Gulf Coast.

Kentsaid results of the monitoring will dispel what he called misinformation about the oilsands thatisused to "discriminate" against a "great Canadian resource."

Monitoring will provide the hard science to prove the oilsands are "being developed in a responsible, sustainable and constantly improving way," he said.

When asked what will happen if the monitoring uncovers problems, Kent saidthey will be fixed, provided they can be "precisely identified."

The governmenthadreleased awater monitoring planfor the oilsands region in March, followinga criticalreport from the Oilsands Advisory Panel last December.

The scientific panel, appointed by former federal environment minister Jim Prentice, released areport slamming the existing approach to environmental monitoring in the oilsands region. It calledthe efforts "piecemeal," with no links between water and air quality measurements.

'Sound and robust,' scientists say

Elizabeth Dowdeswell, the chair of the panel, said Thursday that panel members, who reviewed the new plan,believeit is "sound and robust."

"It responds to the call for comprehensiveness, scientific rigour, and transparency and accessibility," Dowdeswell said in a statement.

She added that a lot of effort has gone into integrating all parts of the ecosystem over space and time, andthe oilsands monitoring plan isdesigned topredict and adapt to changing circumstances and emerging science.

"The panel notes, however, that the success or failure of the plan will now depend on timely, effective implementation."

Environmental group Greenpeace agreed with the call for quick implementation.

Spokesman Mike Hudema said in a statement that if the government is "serious about addressing the horrific impacts of the tarsands," it would hold off on approving newoilsands projects until after the monitoring program is implemented.

Hudema also noted that while monitoring will show the environmental impacts of the oilsands, it won't do anything to stop them from happening.

"The question is will the federal government actually reduce pollution or only track it better?"

Marc Huot, oil sands policy analyst with the Pembina Institute, welcomed the monitoring plan, but also wondered what will happen when it shows there is a problem.

"People want to know that as we are detecting these impacts, we are actually going to do something about them," Huot told CBC News.

In early July, aprovincially appointment panelreleased areportthat found environmental monitoring in the Alberta oilsands is insufficient and needs to have "rigorous scientific design and execution" to be effective.