Average gas prices in Seattle have reached $3.10 per gallon in the past week; just a month ago, average gas prices were $2.80 per gallon. The increasing cost of gas has made extracting oil in Northern Canada, a very complicated and expensive process, look worthwhile. Attempting to reconcile the oil extraction with environmental consideration has been both challenging to the government and the oil companies.

Canada has an enormous amount of oil in Alberta, stored in the form of something called “oil sands.” Due to the cold temperature, the oil is congealed to the earth, requiring an intensive process to separate it and create working oil. The process is more expensive than drilling, and the cold temperature presents many challenges for extracting the oil, but because Canada is a country unfettered by geopolitical instability, gas prices are high and oil companies have increasingly turned to the Alberta oil sands as a source of long-term oil.

Alberta also has an enormous amount of natural gas, but most of the natural gas extraction has required high levels of investment and more cutting edge technology, and investors turned off to the idea after a series of strong winds and hurricanes devastated the area in 2005. Oil extraction has expanded natural gas extraction, which presents more difficulties.

Canada is growing increasingly important as a crude oil exporter. The United States imports 9.62 million barrels per day in total imports, and 1.85 million come from Canada. The oil sands of Canada have been described by Time Magazine as “Canada’s greatest buried energy treasure that could satisfy the world’s demand for petroleum for the next century.”

The oil sands contain deposits of bitumen, molasses-like viscous oil that is completely useless until heated or diluted with lighter hydrocarbons. Only 12 percent of the oil sands are bitumen; the rest consists of sand, water and clay. Separating the oil from the sand is a ridiculously complicated process.

The oil is buried underneath Northern Alberta, in an area about the size of Florida. The area is frigid and cold, and most of it is forested. The oil companies, on joint ventures sometimes with Canadian energy companies, first cut down the forests. Then, enormous 40 ton trucks, the largest in the world and the size of small buildings, take the oil sands to factories to heat and separate them.

Northern Canada’s climate is not conducive to heavy machinery. Because the temperature is so cold and the items being carried are so heavy, machinery breaks down fairly regularly. The factory that processes the oil sands also overheats, so river water is used to wash through the factory to cool down the machinery, and then is reinserted into the river.

The Canadian government is not careless by any means. Government regulation requires that the trees removed must be replanted. Other regulations include monitoring the displacement of sand, as well as the heavy machinery that is operated and the pollution it releases into the air.

Reclaiming the lost land has been challenging, however. Only 22 percent of the disturbed land looks restored. In addition, the dirt used to refill the dug-up holes often does not match the dirt composition of the area, and the replanted forests look more like Christmas tree farms than natural forests.

While reclaiming the land and undoing the damage of extracting oil are difficult, the Canadian government has attempted to do its best. Bison have been spotted in areas where the land has been reclaimed. The Alberta oil sands are a good sign of reconciliation between environmental health and economic development.

Reach columnist Sandley Chou at opinion@thedaily.washington.edu.