Athabasca River

More than three decades after Indigenous leaders in northern Alberta began asking for funding to better understand if pollution from the oilsands was making their people sick, the federal government is funding a study to do just that.

The discovery that pollution from a paper mill is contributing to long-standing mercury poisoning afflicting the nearby First Nation is another example of how widespread and persistent the problem has become, federal MPs say.

A spill of surface runoff from a containment pond at Suncor Energy’s Fort Hills oilsands site may have spanned more than a year, the Alberta Energy Regulator has announced.

The Alberta Energy Regulator has warned Imperial Oil about more wastewater problems at its Kearl oilsands mine in northern Alberta.

In a note to area First Nations, the Alberta Energy Regulator says the water is from a pond used to settle suspended solids in surface water collected from parts of the site that haven't been mined. Once the sediments settle, the water is emptied into a creek that drains into the Athabasca River. 

Alberta’s energy regulator is a captured entity that should be dismantled, multiple Indigenous leaders and representatives told parliamentarians Monday.

A northern Alberta Indigenous leader has accused Imperial Oil Ltd. of a nine-month coverup over a massive release of toxic oilsands tailings on land near where his band harvests food.

Oil companies are asking the federal government to allow them to release the tailings into the Athabasca River, which flows north into one of the largest freshwater deltas in the world.

Releasing treated oilsands tailings into the environment isn't the only solution being considered to clean up the massive toxic ponds in northern Alberta, federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault says.

According to a recent report, the federal government is in the process of developing regulations to allow oil producers to treat and release the water in those ponds, which contain toxic chemicals like mercury, ammonia and naphthenic acids.

Canada's largest national park is now so threatened by upstream development and divided governance that it likely meets the criteria to be placed on the list of World Heritage sites in danger.

Alberta has signed an agreement with the federal government that makes major cuts to environmental monitoring of the oilsands.

Four years after its flames guttered out, the record-breaking Fort McMurray wildfire continues to astound — this time with its lasting impact on an extensive river system.

Joseph Enverga kept hoping the flooding would slow down or even stop as his apartment lights flickered on and off.

A new study done in northeastern Alberta suggests habitat restoration may not be enough to save threatened woodland caribou, at least in the short term, and researchers at the University of British Columbia say their results make the case for a more rigorous analysis of conservation methods.