As part of its tar sands public relations campaign, the Government of Alberta is circulating a brochure on the tar sands with the claim that measures are taken in the tar sands “to prevent any seepage from entering groundwater systems or waterways.”1 In the Alberta Legislature, the Alberta Premier and Environment Minister have dismissed evidence of tailings leakage by suggesting that this is only [...] Such a debate is critical to the health of the Athabasca watershed, to the people who live there, and indeed to the entire Mackenzie Valley drainage into which the Athabasca empties – an area comprising a fifth the size of Canada and much of Canada’s Boreal forest. [...] The theory is that the solids settle out from the liquids over time, allowing the water to be recycled and the solids to be buried during “reclamation.” The reality, however, is that the settling process for the finest tailings has turned out to take much longer than expected – up to 150 years4 – meaning that these tailings lakes will remain a toxic legacy long after industry has left. [...] Second, permeability is reduced as residual bitumen from the tailings stream forms bitumen mats in the beaches of coarser grained tailings along the edges of the tailings impoundment.” 21 Even though the concept of “self sealing” has not been adequately proven or measured, this study has given the benefit of the doubt to industry on this issue, assuming that this does indeed take place, and has re [...] The result is a proposed experiment with the lands and waters of Northern Alberta, putting toxic waste into something called “End Pit Lakes.” The basic idea is that towards the end of a useful bitumen mine, the company would decommission the tailings ponds and transfer the unsettled liquid tailings into the pits from which it has dug the bitumen in the first place.