Hundreds of dead and dying ducks trapped in Syncrude tailings pond

In the midst of our indignant fury, the AGDRT team got our proverbial wires a bit crossed. What does this mean for you? Not one but two posts about this debacle. And make sure to read both of them because they're different.

If you ever needed something to reify the real and devastating impacts of Alberta's development of the oilsands on the natural habitat of Alberta's wildlife, this is it.  A flock of approximately 500 migrating ducks has landed and is trapped on a Syncrude tailings pond outside Fort McMurray. According to Alberta Environment, most will die.

While this is truly a tragedy, I reject the argument that we should view this occurrence as some sort of freak accident. While oilsands companies may have come up with strategies to deter ducks from landing on the toxic chemical laden sludge pools, the fact is that this massive industrial project has irreparably inserted itself into the middle of the habitat of a diverse population of flora and fauna. If anything, the ducks just provide a dramatic example of the accumulating damage done by the oilsands on an continual basis to the species whose existence relies on Alberta's Boreal forest. While a entire herd of caribou may not die in such a collective dramatic way, the yearly and seemingly irreversible dwindling of woodland caribou and forest songbird populations as a result of this substantial loss of their habitat is no less tragic.

This event also provides a clear illustration of the failure of both the Albertan and Canadian governments to enforce their own environmental regulations. People like (most recently) David Boyd have detailed Canada's notoriously lack environmental enforcement record, and Alberta's is no less shameful (how many projects has the EUB turned down?) We might not even know about this catastrophe if it weren't for "an anonymous tipster;" Syncrude certainly didn't report it. This calls into question a long list of statistics we rely on the oil industry to provide to us each year: the cost of producing a barrel of oil, how much bitumen is produced each year, how much water the industry uses, how many threatened waterfowl die in tailings pond each year.

Unfortunately, the only recourse Albertans can hope for at this point, is the faint chance that Syncrude will be held accountable for its complete abdication of the limited responsibility it is charged.  Alberta Environment Minister Rob Renner has suggested that Syncrude could face a $1 million fine in response to this catastrophe. To put this perspective, this represents 0.3% of Canadian Oil Sands Trust's first quarter earnings -- and they hold a 36.7% interest in Syncrude*. That's a real deterrent.

*The only business of Canadian Oil Sands Trust is their stake in Syncrude.

Comments

[eh]

I wonder what happens when Syncrude exhausts this site and they admit that tailings ponds can not be reclaimed? Who will continue the 'stewardship' of these vast lakes? Who will bear this burden?

[One Alberta Voter]

The answer, eh, is clear: the generations of Albertans yet to come. Those of us in the current generation just get to be witnesses to the environmental devastation sweeping this province, and pay our share of the $25 million to deny it to the world. See no evil, hear no evil, and give the world rose-coloured glasses about our shoddy and disgraceful record.

[Deborah Mihalicz]

As usual it takes something of tragic proportions for humans to pause and look up from their day-to-day business of destroying themselves.

Slowly rising acid levels in precipitation, fish tumors and melting ice caps somehow just aren't as exciting as 500 ducks dying all at once in a pool of poison.

I was raised in northwestern Saskatchewan where I now teach high school science. As coincidence would have it, 4 of my students are traveling today to a provincial science fair with a project called "A Question of Balance". Their project addresses the conflict between the pursuit of economic prosperity as generated by oil development in the north, and preserving the environment.

When the students started their project, they were of the opinion that it should be possible to find a balance between the two. These young adults are among thousands of stakeholders facing unprecedented career and financial opportunities on the brink of proposed oil development in their backyard of northern Saskatchewan.

However, as they researched multiple sources on the effect of pollution specific to oil development, they have become more and more skeptical as to the possibility of finding a balance. Their growing concern has been evident to me as they educated themselves on rising acid levels in precipitation, diseased and dying fish and trees and the domino effect on the Churchill River system, let alone the whole food pyramid. Within one month, the label on their stakeholder package evolved from financial to environmental.

The students' alarm at the sheer potential for environmental catastrophe inherent in an oilsands project spilled over into a drive to educate fellow students, staff, and even municipal governing bodies. They started a petition to lobby the provincial government to learn from our neighbors, and enforce pollution limits BEFORE oilsands development even begins. This would mean WAITING to grant contracts only to companies with environmentally sound methods of oil extraction (if they don't exist yet they soon would). Why the rush to follow the lemmings over the cliff? The petition also asks the government to set and enforce EFFECTIVE pollution limits, as defined by an independent monitoring group.

Also included in the students' message is a caution against self-righteousness. It's our lifestyle that is feeding the oil production monster. Fort McMurray wouldn't exist if there wasn't such a demand for oil products. So it's within everyone's responsibility to evolve into the day-to-day business of contributing to the health of our planet rather than its ruin.

Our children are a voice crying in the wilderness. If only all of us could journey so quickly from awareness to action. The tragedy is not that 500 ducks died on a tailings pond, but that the "most intelligent" species on the planet continues to feed a monster that's slowly destroying that very planet from under their feet.

[One Alberta Voter]

Thank you, Deborah, for a very thoughtful comment, and a very sophisticated way of educating your students. Well done on both counts.