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Perhaps ducks didn’t die in vain
Opinion | Calgary Herald | Edmonton Journal | Darcy Henton | March 01, 2010
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A court case today will attempt to get to the bottom of a tailings pond where hundreds of ducks sank to their deaths after a late spring snowstorm in 2008.
Alberta’s dead duck controversy oozes back into the international limelight in a St. Albert courtroom, where oilsands giant Syncrude Canada begins an eight-week defence against charges of failing to take adequate measures to divert waterfowl from its toxic lakes.
Syncrude has pleaded not guilty to federal and provincial charges in connection with the deaths of 1,606 waterfowl. What will likely be missing from the weeks of courtroom argument is the bigger picture of the overall environmental impacts of oilsands development.
Premier Ed Stelmach and members of his Conservative government downplayed the bird deaths by comparing the tailings pond incident with the number of birds killed annually by wind turbines, windows and even cats, but ecologist Kevin Timoney says no one knows how many birds die annually in the ponds because no one is really watching.
“It’s highly likely that the numbers of waterfowl that have died — not only ducks, but shore birds — is far greater than any of the companies are admitting. There is no scientifically acceptable monitoring done.”
Research Timoney has compiled from a number of studies suggests anywhere from 450 to 5,000 birds die in the ponds every year — a mean of 2,000 birds annually.
But by far the biggest killer is the loss of habitat to oilsands development, which he says has resulted in the destruction of between 58,000 and 402,000 birds.
You won’t likely hear about that at the trial. Timoney says no one has called him to testify.
Regardless of what happens in court over the next two months, some observers see the dead duck fiasco as a mixed blessing because of the intense oilsands scrutiny it has sparked.
Since a whistleblower tipped the provincial government that hundreds of birds had died after landing on Syncrude’s Aurora pond in April 2008, the image of the oilsands has been tarred and feathered in national and international media.
Even the prime minister lamented “the terrible event.”
The incident put Stelmach and his government in the crosshairs of environmentalists around the world. Some produced mock travel ads celebrating Alberta’s “open-pit paradise” featuring children covered in black goo cavorting on tar-soaked beaches.
An advertisement in a Washington, D.C., newspaper during a visit by Stelmach two years ago suggested the next meeting of premiers and governors be held in Canada’s oilsands. “Sunsets over giant toxic waste lagoons are spectacular,” the newspaper ad noted.
Anger turned to outrage among those most disturbed by the duck deaths when they learned the province’s initial estimate of 500 fatalities ballooned to more than triple that number within weeks of the incident, but for more than a year neither the government nor the company revealed that information.
The company says a late spring storm prevented bird-deterrent noise cannons from being installed to prevent the migrating birds from landing on one of its three ponds. It has apologized, but contends it should not have been charged.
Syncrude lawyer Robert White told reporters last September that while the company is not above the law, the law recognizes that “when people do their best to avoid something, that isn’t a matter for charges. That is a matter of fix up.”
If convicted, the Syncrude consortium, which includes Canadian Oil Sands, ConocoPhillips, Imperial Oil, Mocal Energy, Murphy Oil, Nexen and Petro-Canada Oil, faces fines of up to $500,000 under Alberta law and $300,000 plus up to six months in jail for executives under federal law.
The federal fine maximums and minimums have been bolstered since the incident and the province has moved to force industry to begin reducing liquid tailings.
Ottawa increased its maximum corporate fine to $6 million and the province passed new laws to force industry to cut tailings by 50 per cent by 2013.
So perhaps those 1,606 ducks didn’t die for naught.
Oilsands development has despoiled 500 square kilometres of land in northeastern Alberta. There are now more than 50 square kilometres of tailings ponds. So far, Syncrude has officially reclaimed only 1.04 square kilometres of the 220 square kilometres it has disturbed.
How sustainable is that?
Alberta’s dead ducks could very well be the canaries of the tar pits.
dhenton@thejournal.canwest.com
Tagged with: ducks, tailings ponds, lawsuit, calgary herald, edmonton journal
