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<h1>Importance of ARB</h1> <p>The Athabasca River Basin (ARB) is important to all human and non-human residents of the basin/watershed. It occupies a large percentage of the province of Alberta and a portion of Saskatchewan. Eventually its waters affect portions of Yukon and Northwest Territories via the Mackenzie River.</p> <p>The importance of the ARB is summarized in the following table. The examples are not an exhaustive list.</p> <table border="0" width="100%"> <tbody> <tr class="odd"> <td><strong>Importance of ARB</strong></td><td><strong>Examples</strong></td> </tr> <tr class="even"> <td>Human Survival</td> <td> <ul> <li>oxygen production and carbon dioxide removal by plant photosynthesis</li> <li>water for drinking and washing</li> <li>food - both wild and farmed</li> <li>fibers (especially wood)</li> </ul> </td> </tr> <tr class="odd"> <td>Resources – renewable</td> <td> <ul> <li>air, water and soil as raw materials for agriculture, forestry and industry</li> <li>air and water for waste dilution</li> <li>microorganisms for waste treatment, decomposition and soil production</li> <li>wood for >12 lumber or plywood mills</li> <li>wood fiber for 5 pulp mills</li> <li>potential of hydroelectricity</li> </ul> </td> </tr> <tr class="even"> <td>Resources – non-renewable</td> <td> <ul> <li>>25 pit, CSS and SAGD mines extracting oil from oil sands </li> <li>100s of natural gas wells and processing plants</li> <li>several coal mines (e.g. Cheviot Coal Mine)</li> <li>a few peat extraction plants</li> <li>100s of gravel pits</li> </ul> </td> </tr> <tr class="odd"> <td>Recreation</td> <td> <ul> <li>hiking, swimming, canoeing, fishing, hunting</li> <li>skiing, snowmobiling</li> <li>2 national and 30 provincial parks</li> </ul> </td> </tr> <tr class="even"> <td>Ecological problems</td> <td> <ul> <li>water quality, especially toxic compounds and disease-causing organisms</li> <li>natural toxins (e.g. mercury, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), cyanobacteria )</li> <li>industrial wastes e.g. chlorinated organics</li> <li>soil erosion from logging</li> <li>agricultural chemical run-off and wastes</li> <li>municipal wastes</li> <li>water quantity – too little or too much as well as timing </li> <li>toxic waste disposal (e.g. Swan Hills Special Waste Treatment Centre </li> <li>global warming (e.g. melting of the Athabasca Glacier)</li> <li>forest fires (e.g. Slave Lake, Chisholm, Virginia Hills, House River)</li> </ul> </td> </tr> <tr class="odd"> <td>Political</td> <td> <ul> <li>Treaty 8 used Athabasca River as a boundary </li> <li>export of rural resources to urban areas</li> <lidistribution of government taxes and benefits ></li> </ul> </td> </tr> <tr class="even"> <td>Intellectual interest</td> <td> <ul> <li>Archeology and pre-history</li> <li>History: early explorers, fur trade, river transportation</li> <li>Biology: many unknown or poorly understood organisms </li> <li>Geology (e.g. Athabasca flowed south via the Tawatinaw Valley)</li> <li>Social and economic implications of the massive growth of oil sand development</li> </ul> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table>