Alberta says no new charges against Syncrude despite three times more dead ducks
Published Tuesday March 31st, 2009
EDMONTON - Syncrude Canada will not face any new charges despite a threefold increase in the number of dead waterfowl last spring in one of its tailings ponds, says Environment Minister Rob Renner.
The oilsands giant now says the carcasses of 1,606 ducks were actually collected from the toxic oily waters of the Aurora pond in northern Alberta - not the 500 that were originally announced.
Renner said the province was aware of the higher number last July, but he only learned of the final figure Tuesday morning.
Syncrude announced it will increase protection of migrating waterfowl around its tailings ponds.
Speaking from Washington, Renner said he is satisfied with Syncrude's plan, but added it will not have any bearing on the charges the company faces.
Syncrude is next to appear in court on provincial and federal migratory bird and environmental charges in June.
Syncrude Canada chief executive Tom Katinas released the updated figure a week after an Alberta court granted the consortium three more months to enter a plea on federal and provincial wildlife charges that were laid after the environmental disaster made headlines around the world.
"I want to apologize for this terribly sad event that happened on our site," Katinas told a news conference.
"It is a stain on our good reputation that Syncrude has earned over its many years of good operations. The drowning of the waterfowl last April shouldn't have happened and it's unacceptable."
Crown prosecutors in the case against Syncrude gave the company permission to release the final dead bird count.
Katinas declined to explain why Syncrude is only now acknowledging the larger number and that it should have done a better job of protecting migrating waterfowl.
He said it took time for many of the carcasses to surface on the pond as they began to decompose.
Katinas said other bodies of water in the area were still frozen last April, so the Aurora pond was one of the few places the ducks could land. A spring snowstorm also delayed the deployment of noise-making cannons that are placed around such ponds to scare away birds.
He announced that more of the cannons will be deployed and will now be monitored year-round. The company will also use high-tech scarecrows that move in the wind and will test a radar system to detect flocks of migrating birds.
A Greenpeace Canada spokesman said the group is shocked by the higher duck death toll and questions why it took Syncrude almost a year to make the information public.
Mike Hudema said instead of putting more noise-making cannons in place governments should enact tougher regulations governing tailings ponds and end the practice of allowing corporations to police themselves.
"The concern for most Albertans and most Canadians that was revealed by the duck incident is just how inherently toxic these tailings lakes are," Hudema said from Washington, D.C.
"This is a toxic industry and we have to start talking about how we are going to start transitioning away from it."
Prime Minister Stephen Harper said last spring that Canada's international reputation had been harmed by the dead duck incident.
Syncrude faces charges under provincial and federal laws and faces a maximum total fine of $800,000. A jail term is also an option.
Net income in 2008 for the Canadian Oil Sands Trust (TSX:COS.UN), the majority shareholder for Syncrude, was $1.5 billion.
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