The infamous Cold Lake oil spills, discovered on four well pads operated by Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., spilled a total of at least 1.8 million litres of oil into surrounding forest and wetlands. Several fissures in the ground seeped oil into the area for months as the company and energy regulator tried to understand the cause of the release.

According to new figures released by the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) the total amount of bitumen emulsion - a mixture of tar sands heavy crude and water - released on Canadian Natural Resources Ltd.'s (CNRL) Cold Lake Site is now more than 1.5 million litres, or the equivalent to more than 9600 barrels of oil.

There is a fundamental flaw in the current environmental assessment process: It focuses on each proposed development as something that stands alone. But an individual well or dam is not separate or isolated from its surroundings -- air, water, plants and animals pay no attention to our imposed, artificial boundaries. We can't anticipate long-term consequences of any major technology if we are ignorant of how the world works, yet the consequences persevere.

The constitutional standing of the tar sands -- one of the world's largest and most carbon-intensive energy projects -- is just what's at stake in a treaty rights claim the Beaver Lake Cree Nation (BLCN) is bringing against the Governments of Alberta and Canada.