Young Calgary woman hopes to clean up tailings ponds

Haley Todesco - Google Science Fair competitor

A young Calgary woman has invented a new way to clean up Alberta’s tailings ponds.

She’s only 18 years old, but Haley Todesco has devised what she considers is a better way to clean up the oil sands extractions using sand filter bioreactors.

According to her entry on the Google Science Fair website “these inexpensive and sustainable bioreactors could significantly accelerate the detoxification of oil sands tailings.”

This isn’t just a science fair project; Todesco said “I hope that it will definitely get built” and “start reducing the toxicity of these large pools of waste just sitting outdoors in Northern Alberta would be great.”

Her interest in clean water started years ago in Grade Five when her class project involved making filters for drinking water.

Then in high school she knew she wanted to get serious about her project, so she turned to the University of Calgary.

She said “I basically went down the faculty page and found the person who looked the nicest and sent them an email.”

Todesco said she also attached a copy of her report card to be clear she was serious.

The approach worked, someone at the University of Calgary invited her in and gave her some lab space.

The new technology has made Todesco a winning competitor in several prestigious science fairs.

She recently won the Stockholm Junior Water Prize and after winning a regional contest she is now the only Canadian finalist in the International Google Science Fair.

Todesco heads to Google headquarters in California next weekend to learn who will be the final winner is of the international contest.

As well, she is a contestant in the Google Science Voter's Choice Award, anyone can vote, but voting ends at 11:59 p.m. Sunday.

Todesco graduated from Queen Elizabeth High School in Calgary this June and she is currently a student at the University of Alberta where she has a scholarship to study microbiology.