Tipster alerts AB government to 500 tar-covered birds on Syncrude site
On Monday, approximately 500 migratory ducks landed in a toxic tailings pond on Syncrude's Aurora North site in Alberta's tar sands region. An anonymous tipster alerted the provincial government to the situation and Alberta Environment moved in to coordinate 'rescue and salvage' attempts. The current status of these birds is unkown, except that they are 'clearly heavily-oiled' and unable to fly (if not dead, by this point). Two questions:
- Why the f*ck didn't Syncrude report this as soon as it happened?
- What the f*ck are migratory birds doing on a Syncrude tailings pond?
Hundreds of thousands of migratory birds fly over the Ft. McMurray region each year. As such, tar sands projects operators are required to take spring-fall measures that prevent them from landing on tailings ponds, which are filled with residual oily substances and toxic waste. These 'measures' basically involve firing cannons (yes, cannons) at high enough intervals to scare birds from landing on these vast expanses of carcinogenic sludge. Unfortunately, Syncrude did not have the measures in place (even though it is almost May), citing last week's unseasonable weather. This is not an acceptable excuse. Both the provincial and federal governments are investigating. Apparently, the most Syncrude can be fined is $1 000 000. I say that this is not enough.
Update: Alberta Environment Minister Rob Renner, was quoted saying that, while this is a tragedy, oil company self-reporting usually works well and "there are simply not enough wildlife officers, environment officers to be monitoring every operation throughout the entire province 365 days a year." Perhaps, some of the $25 million from Alberta's newly-minted greenwashing campaign should be redirected towards this shortage? We could try actually enforcing our environmental standards, and cleaning up, investigating and ultimately preventing these types of ecological disasters in the first place. That, and not flashy PR campaigns will win Alberta respect on the international stage. This is a travesty and it is unacceptable, and as an Albertan I am livid and sick to my stomach that this could happen in my province.
This whole situation makes me want to puke. Seriously... unseasonable weather... are you kidding me???
So mad right now.
Posted by: MR | April 29, 2008 at 10:40 PM
Insanity ....
Make it a $ 10,000,000 fine. Maybe these
knobs will start to care. Thankfully someone
did care and tipped off the government.
Hire a couple of people to monitor 24 seven.
Posted by: Lindsay | April 30, 2008 at 10:20 PM
Insanity ....
Make it a $ 10,000,000 fine. Maybe these
knobs will start to care. Thankfully someone
did care and tipped off the government.
Hire a couple of people to monitor 24 seven.
Posted by: Lindsay | April 30, 2008 at 10:21 PM