“It’s definitely a concern expressed by community members seeing changes in water, traditional foods and changes in their health. “More data and information is necessary to answer these questions… but there are toxic sludge and tailings ponds here… these leak into the watershed,” said Lepine. Last summer, APTN News reported on a story where Keepers of the Water, an Indigenous environmental group, raised alarm over the proposed dumping of treated tailings pond water from the Alberta oil industry into the Athabasca River.