For years, residents of Fort Chipewyan, Alberta, have raised concerns about cancer rates in their community. Many residents attribute the cancers to contamination from a range of industrial development, including oil sands operations (about 250 kilometres upstream), uranium mining and pulp mills.

In February 2009, the Alberta Cancer Board released a study of the incidence of a rare cancer called cholangiocarcinoma in Fort Chipewyan. The study made three key points:

• The incidence of rare cancers in Fort Chipewyan is within the expected range.
• The cancer rate overall was higher than expected. Fifty-one cancers were found in 47 individuals over a 12-year period, compared to the expected 39 cancers.
• The findings are based on a small number of cases and an increase in observed cancers over what is expected could be due to chance, to increased detection, or to increased risk (lifestyle, environmental or occupational) in the community.

The study was reviewed by independent experts from Australia, New Zealand and the United States, as well as two Canadian Aboriginal researchers.

While the study of the cancer incidence in Fort Chipewyan found levels of the rare cancer were not higher than expected, it did point to the need for a detailed, long-term analysis to understand the reasons for the higher rates. Suncor understands that members of the community are still concerned about cancer rates and that they would like further study to examine potential causes.

Suncor takes the issue of downstream health concerns very seriously. We also recognize that many downstream residents continue to express distrust of the oil sands industry and government studies. That's why we are making a renewed effort to ensure the residents and other stakeholders in our region understand what we are doing to protect regional water, land and air quality, and to quickly inform them of any regulatory exceedances.

Suncor works on several fronts to ensure our operations have minimal impact on the quality of water in the Athabasca River. While we regularly treat and release water used in our operations back to the river, all such discharges are closely monitored by Suncor and reported to government regulators.

Most of the discharged volume is water used for cooling that does not come into contact with any process materials. The remainder is process outflow and surface run-off waters. All water returned to the river is analyzed and treated prior to discharge to ensure all water quality standards are stringently met.

Tailings water is not released to the river. Suncor's tailings ponds are designed with collection systems to capture seepage and return it to the pond preventing it from entering groundwater systems or waterways.

The Regional Aquatics Monitoring Program (RAMP), which began extensive monitoring of the Athabasca River in 1997, has found no discernable water quality changes either upstream or downstream of oil sands operations.