Environmental Defence released 11 Million Litres a Day: Tar Sands' Leaking Legacy. The author, Matt Price, wants the Canadian federal government to step in since contamination is crossing jurisdictional boundaries from Alberta into Saskatchewan and Northwest Territories.

Hot water is used to separate the oil from the sand and tailings ponds hold this contaminated waste. The report says that if proposed projects move ahead by 2012 the annual leakage rate could increase to 25 billion litres a year.

Alberta's government environmental office says the report falsely gives the impression that leaks enter surface waters and said most of the waste is going into deep aquifers that are already naturally contaminated by the geology of the oilsands.