So, what is the perception here? That the future holds for some increasing oil spills or that new ventures come online to increase oil flows, increasing the risk of damage to environment not recognized in the past by such disasters, even-though the research has been going on since 1967. This costs money. That means much more money is anticipated from the ventures.
The perception is to save the environment.

"We still know very little about what this diluted bitumen does under natural scenarios. We can work with these things in the lab and have done so, but when they are exposed to natural mixing, to natural wind, to sunlight [and] to the natural conditions that happen in a boreal setting — we need to understand these processes better."​

Yes, the need to understand the 'processes' better.

Scientists plan simulated oil spills in northwestern Ontario
Experiments have implications for pipeline approvals, oil transport by rail and cleanup

By Bartley Kives, CBC News Posted: Mar 07, 2018

"Scientists are planning experimental "oil spills" in northwestern Ontario this summer in an effort to better understand what happens when diluted bitumen winds up in freshwater lakes.
In research with implications for how Canada regulates oil transport by pipelines and rail, ecologists at the Experimental Lakes Area (ELA) east of Kenora are planning to simulate a series of spills, clean them up and then assess what happens to the water, plants and animals.

In one set of experiments, diluted bitumen — the product most commonly transported from Alberta's oil sands — will be added to enclosed columns of lake water in different concentrations to see where the oil goes, how it breaks down and what happens to the algae, plankton, invertebrates and fish."

http://www.cbc.ca/player/play/1179340355983/

To read more goto http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/oil-spill-freshwater-research-pipelines-1.4562872?cmp=rss&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
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