H2Oil

Oil or access to clean fresh water? Which resource is more precious? And what price are we willing to pay?

A controversial billion-dollar industry is heavily invested in extracting crude from Alberta’s Athabasca oil sands through a process so toxic it has become an international cause for concern – four barrels of glacier-fed spring water are used to process each barrel of oil, then are dumped, laden with carcinogens, into leaky tailings ponds so huge they can be seen from space.

Downstream, the people of Fort Chipewyan are already paying the price for what will be one of the largest industrial projects in history. When a local doctor raises the alarm about clusters of rare cancers, evidence mounts for industry and government cover-ups.