Fort McMurray: The Heart of Oil Boom

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Fort McMurray is the heart of Alberta’s current oil boom. Over the past decades, it has seen considerably developing, and the population continues to grow quickly. For example, in the past 15 years, the population has increased to about 80,000, and it is also expected to go beyond 200,000 by 2030 (Maimona, 2013). However, although the development of the boomtown brings lots of profits, such as higher wages, more opportunities and more revenues for the government; there are still some environmental, economic and social issues. Therefore, there are several reasons that cause these problems, and some suggestions to address the challenges that Fort McMurray faces.
First of all, there are some environmental consequences of Fort McMurray. The oil sands operations have caused air pollutions and water waste. For example, scientists found PAHs are a kind of hazardous substances that released into the atmosphere that are resulted from the unfinished burning of coal, oil and gas (Climate Action Network Canada, n.d.). Also, producing a barrel of synthetic crude oil from the oil sands need two to four barrels of fresh water, which is a big waste for the water scarcity world (Dyer, 2009). Secondly, some economic issues relate to the progress of Fort McMurray. For instance, the increasing investment in the oil sands has caused the damage to Alberta’s conventional oil and gas industry (Beast & Hoberg, 2008). In addition, a rising living costs and inflation rate cause life difficult for people who do not work for oil sands (Beast & Hoberg, 2008). Finally, there are also some social impacts associated with the industry boomtown. From the documentary game--Fort McMoney (2013), the homeless people have increased in Fort McMurray because many new com...

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Dufresne, D. (2013). Fort McMoney (Episode 1: Boomtown) [Documentary Game]. Retrieved from http://www.fortmcmoney.com/#/fortmcmoney
Dyer, S. (September 22, 2009). Environmental Impacts of Oil Sands Development in Alberta. Retrieved from http://www.resilience.org/stories/2009-09-22/environmental-impacts-oil-sands-development-alberta
Maimona, M. (August 22, 2013). Beyond bitumen: Can Fort McMurray build a future that’s bigger than the oil sands? Financial Post. Retrieved from http://business.financialpost.com/2013/08/22/fort-mcmurray-oil-sands/?__lsa=e999-1a1b
Tracey, G. (n.d.). Managing Growth: Building a Sustainable Development in Fort McMurray. Retrieved from http://www.business.ualberta.ca/Centres/CABREE/Energy/~/media/business/Centres/CABREE/Documents/Energy/Oil/TraceyManGrowthBUEC.ashx

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