By Andrew Nikiforuk, March 2, 2013. Source: The Tyee
Residents near Baytex bitumen facility say they are being poisoned by off-gassing. Photo: Richard Labrecque.
Another Alberta pollution scandal has forced as many as six residents from their homes and poisoned scores of other citizens near the Peace River Oil Sands in the northwest corner of the province.
“It’s a desperate situation,” said Vivianne Laliberte who moved into her son’s place last October after being repeatedly “gassed” from emissions from oil sands operations just 5 kilometres from her 85-year-old farm.
“There are a lot of sick people but they don’t have the money to move,” Laliberte told The Tyee. Her farm is located 48 kilometres south of Peace River.
Emissions from heavy oil extraction and storage facilities owned by Calgary-based Baytex Energy Corp., a heavy oil producer, forced her and her husband to abandon their property.
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Christy Rodgers
Global Justice Ecology Project
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Jeff Conant
