Rathmann and the rest of the group traveled to Canada in July to take part in a “healing walk,” a tour of the tar sands facilities alongside members of local First Nations groups.

The tour spanned about 8 miles near the town of Fort McMurray, where the facilities are located. There they got to see the oil facilities and learn about the extraction and mining of bitumen, the substance that is eventually processed into synthetic crude oil. They also heard from tribe members about how the operations are affecting their livelihood and the environment.

Anne Remaley, of PESC, showed Powerpoint slides comparing what Fort McMurray looked like before mining operations began there and what it looks like now. What was once a lush green landscape with an abundance of trees is now stripped down to dirt pathways crawling with mining vehicles.

The contrasting photos may seem startling to most, Remaley said, but not for oil companies that see the environmental alteration as a profitable venture.

“There’s a real disconnect, because for them, production is what it’s all about,” she said.

Bitumen is extracted from the ground in two ways, she said. Open pit mining is one method. The other is pumping steam into the ground to force the melted bitumen to the surface. The site produces about 900,000 barrels of bitumen a day, Remaley said.

Remaley said the residue from these processes is deposited into what’s called tailing ponds that have leaked millions of liters of toxic waste into the ground. The nearby Athabasca river is also polluted, as the organic material that naturally keeps it clean has been destroyed.

Remaley said the group learned there has been a 30 percent rise in cancers in the native people living downstream from the tar sands since mining operations began. Rathmann’s wife, Pat, said they can no longer use water from the wells. They also can’t fish for food because more and more of the native fish are being found with tumors.

In addition, the operations in Alberta have upset migration routes for caribou, resulting in a decline of herds, PESC member Pat Fuerst said.

Helen Yost, from Wild Idaho Rising Tide, said it’s all the more reason to protest the megaloads that come through the region. Megaload trucks passed through Moscow in November, and Yost called for further activism to prevent more from making their journey to Canada.

By not stopping the megaloads “we now have tar sands blood on our hands,” she said.

General Electric sent the megaloads through the city after a U.S. district judge issued an injunction in September that blocked GE from shipping large loads along U.S. Highway 12, which passes through tribal lands and a federally designated Wild and Scenic River corridor.

Yost said small gestures of protest like standing on the side of the road with signs may not seem effective, but she said it, at the very least, keeps their message alive.

Pat Rathmann said the group had a similar mindset when they traveled to Canada to meet with those who are fighting the same fight.

“It matters to us, and we wanted to go and stand arm in arm with the people there affected by this,” she said.

(By Anthony Kuipers, staff writer, Moscow-Pullman Daily News)

Also appeared as Moscow Group Tours Alberta Tar Sands (December 15 Spokesman-Review)