Published On Tue Oct 26 2010 Dean Bennett The Canadian Press
EDMONTON—More than 200 birds died after they landed on a gooey, toxic Syncrude tailings pond just days after the oilsands giant agreed to pay more than $3 million in a similar image-soiling case where 1,600 ducks died.
The Alberta company has blamed freezing rain for the latest landing. A news release on the company’s website said workers noticed the birds Monday night in parking lots and on roads around its operation. They appeared exhausted and unable to fly.
Initially Syncrude said 125 birds had to be killed after landing in its Mildred Lake tailings pond, which contains a thick brew of poisonous oilsands by-product. By late Tuesday afternoon spokeswoman Cheryl Robb said 230 couldn’t be saved.
“This definitely is not something that we wanted to see happen,” Robb said. “It’s hit us really hard.”
Provincial Environment Minister Rob Renner was first to go public with the latest case, saying his department will investigate.
“It’s discouraging in the extreme,” Renner said. “I thought we had moved the agenda significantly forward so that this kind of incident would be minimized, but the fact of the matter is that we are now dealing with what appears to be a similar incident.
“The timing,” he added, “obviously, couldn’t be worse.”
Last Friday, Syncrude was ordered to pay $3 million in penalties for the deaths of 1,600 ducks on its Aurora tailings pond in 2008. The company initially reported that 500 ducks were involved, but later admitted the actual number was triple that amount.
The ruling wrapped up a two-year legal odyssey that saw images of tar-fouled and suffering birds flashed around the world to the benefit of oilsands critics.
“It just happened last week and now we have this other incident, which is not only frustrating, it makes one angry,” Premier Ed Stelmach told the legislature. “But on the other hand, let’s get the full details about the investigation.”
Syncrude had argued during trial that the company was caught off guard by a late-spring snowstorm that left the birds with nowhere to land but the tailings pond.
Court also heard Syncrude was having problems with its bird deterrence program and was two weeks behind in setting up air cannons and scarecrows.
Syncrude pledged to restore its image after Friday’s decision.
The company said air cannons, flare guns and air horns were all working Monday night, but had no effect on the tired waterfowl.
“You know, the incident in 2008 is something that we’ve regretted from the beginning — we can do things better,” Robb said. “We just didn’t expect an incident again to happen at Syncrude. We’ve been doing our very best to prevent anything from happening again.”
Federal NDP environment critic Linda Duncan, who is also an Alberta MP, said the time has come to shut down the tailings ponds.
“This is reprehensible,” said Duncan in a phone interview from Ottawa. “It makes a mockery of the (recent) conviction.
“No amount of penalty or donation to a large institution will prevent this from continuing to happen.”
Opposition Alberta Liberal Leader David Swann blamed the province.
“This government has to take responsibility for setting standards, monitoring standards and enforcing standards — the basic role of government,” he said.
Mike Hudema of the environmental activist group Greenpeace said the latest incident proves that nothing has changed.
“Syncrude needs more than a slap on the wrist and this government needs to do more than just being the public relations firm for the tarsands industry,” said Hudema.
“The minister of the environment needs to stop being disappointed and start actually getting mad and regulating these companies.”
But Alberta Energy Minister Ron Liepert said the government will continue to foster the development of its oilsands resource.
“Clearly, we’ve got a very strong commitment to develop those resources in a responsible way and we are going to continue to do that.”
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