Tar sands are the most land wasteful, all around filthy, horrible for the environment, life-threatening form of energy in existence right now. Here's why I say that:

What are tar sands?

Tar sands, or oil sands, are a mixture of mostly sand, clay, water, and bitumen, which is what all the fuss – and filthy, water polluting, soil polluting, toxic process – is about. Bitumen is made of the same molecules as liquid oil and the same fossil fuel products are made from it.

What is so bad about tar sands?

The process of getting the bitumen out of the tar sand is complicated, filthy, dangerous, and expensive. Far more so than drilling for liquid oil, which is bad enough.

The two ways of mining bitumen:

1) Surface mining: The tar sands are collected, transported to a refinery, and the bitumen is separated from it

2) "In-situ" mining: Bitumen is changed into liquid state by heating it with steam, underground, where it occurs naturally.

Obviously, because so much processing has to happen to refine it to the liquid oil state, there are more carbon dioxide emissions (15% more) than conventional oil. Because more and more "in-situ" mining is necessary, to get at bitumen deeper in the earth, those dangerous emissions are likely to increase. Both of these methods create more pollution than liquid oil.

The impact on water supplies.

It takes 6 gallons of fresh water to process tar sands. Three times more than the processing of liquid oil.

And if that's not bad enough, the wastewater is highly polluted with arsenic, lead, mercury, benzene and other extremely toxic substances. Storage ponds – some of the largest structures created by humans – have been created to contain that severely polluted water. Some cover over 30 square miles! And if – when – they leak, they poison the ground water. Can you say tainting the well?

What can be done to lessen the impact of bitumen processing?

There are meager attempts to lessen the environmental impact of processing bitumen, like using non-potable water and recycled water; using in-situ rather than open-pit mining to decrease land use waste; using carbon capture and storage to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from removal and use of oil from tar sands.

Why aren't these efforts enough?

It's not only the extraction process posing a threat to water supplies but transporting the hazardous materials over thousands of miles - miles of wetlands - and over the largest aquifer in the United States.

Why is transporting bitumen more dangerous than transporting liquid oil?

Leaks in the pipeline are more likely (it's been estimated, 16 times more likely) because the diluted bitumen is more acidic than liquid oil, and will corrode the pipeline faster, causing leaks. The ground above the aquifer is extremely porous and because bitumen is heavy, it would sink deep and be soaked up like a sponge, according to experts. It would reach the water supply within hours of the leakage. Ever see an oil spill get cleaned up within hours? Weeks – if we're very lucky.

Spills have already occurred in Michigan and Canada…short term effects being the closure of rivers to fishing and swimming for months. And in some areas, there have been deformed fish found. When oil companies denied the connection between deformed fish and the poisons released into the rivers, scientists proved them wrong, and said that the pipeline wouldn't be safe.

The Ogallala Aquifer is the largest in the US and Canada, and we must keep it safe.

Where are tar sands located?

The largest tar sand is in Alberta, Canada, and it is the size of the state of Florida. There are also tar sands in Venezuela, and here in the US in Utah.

How big is the tar sand in Utah?

Utah's Tar Sand Triangle is in Southeastern Utah is 148,000 acres (231 square miles or the size of Chicago.) It's between the Dirty Devil and Colorado Rivers, obviously a threat to clean water supplies.

What can be done?

One of the best ways to eliminate using this filthy resource is to cut the demand for oil products – ideally in half – so we don't have to use bitumen to begin with.

There are already restrictions against leasing public lands for refining tar sands and other fossil fuels, however those restrictions tend to change from administration to administration.

The best thing we can do as individuals and communities is cut the demand for petroleum products, and use alternative energy sources: solar and wind, to name two.

Want to invest in your children's and grandchildren's future? Buy some solar panels and energy storage units. Buy an electric vehicle (I'm currently researching how seniors on fixed incomes might get some help with these efforts.). Anything that uses less fossil fuels will make a better future for your kids and theirs, and theirs.