Toxic oil sands spills spur Canada to boost oversight
, Bloomberg News
Canada’s federal government is stepping up environmental oversight in Alberta’s oil sands after Imperial Oil Ltd. and the provincial regulator were slow to report toxic spills.
Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault has proposed a joint federal-provincial-Indigenous working group with the involvement of the oil company to address concerns about the spill. Imperial and the regulator have been asked to testify on the spill at the House of Commons Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development.
“This slow notification to the federal government and Indigenous communities is of serious concern,” the federal ministry of Environment and Climate Change Canada said in a release Monday.
The ministry said it and Indigenous communities near Imperial’s Kearl oil sands mine weren’t made aware of two spills from a storage pond until nine months after the first of those spills happened when the Alberta Energy Regulator published an emergency order for Imperial to contain the ongoing seepage.
Imperial maintains it did notify local communities at the time of both leaks, company spokeswoman Lisa Schmidt said in an email. “We deeply regret communications during our investigation into the May incident were not regularly provided to communities following our initial notification as we did not meet their expectations,” she said.
“Imperial has committed to taking the necessary steps to improve our communications, so this does not happen in the future,” she said.
An email to the Alberta Energy Regulator seeking comment was not immediately returned.
The seepages, in May and February, were deemed harmful to fish and, on March 10, enforcement officers issued a directive requiring Imperial to take immediate action to prevent leaks from entering fish-bearing waters.
Communities including Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation and Mikisew Cree First Nation have expressed continuing concern for their health and safety, the ministry said. The federal government has approved funding to ship bottled water to the Mikisew Cree First Nation but local drinking water has been found to meet Canadian standards.
Alberta premier says changes coming to ensure prompt reporting of oilsands spills
PREMIER: CHANGES COMING
Premier Danielle Smith says laggardly public notification of Imperial Oil oilsands wastewater spills has illuminated the need for Alberta to ensure future alarms are sounded quicker.
Smith says her government is working with the province's oilsands regulator to develop better policies to give affected groups timely notification.
“Good practice and being a good neighbour (means) more communication is better,” Smith said Tuesday at an unrelated news conference in Mundare, Alta.
“That’s going to be our approach going forward. I’ve talked to the environment minister about that and the energy minister about that and the regulator about that.
“We’ll be working with the (Alberta Energy) Regulator to develop new processes to make sure that any time there is an incident that the comms are clear, that we have radical transparency and, just even as a courtesy, make sure any impacted party has a heads-up so they don’t have any fear based on the misinformation they see on social media or in the media.”
Area First Nations and the Northwest Territories government have said they should have been kept in the loop on the spills from Imperial's Kearl mine tailings ponds.
Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation, which is downstream from the spill, said in a statement Tuesday that its representatives were recently able to access the spill site on the north side of the Kearl tailings pond.
"What we observed was worse than what anyone anticipated," the First Nation said.
It said representatives saw toxic water still on the ground in an unfenced, uncontained area beside streams and ponds.
It said it also saw animal tracks in and out of the area, tailings puddles and no barriers between seepage and water bodies.
“We won’t stop until we have a full accounting of this catastrophe. We are not going away,” said Chief Allan Adam.
The N.W.T. has called it a violation of its agreement with Alberta for timely updates on emerging threats to their shared watershed.
The first wastewater release was spotted and reported in May as discoloured water near a tailings pond at the Kearl site north of Fort McMurray.
It was found to be tailings seepage and no further updates were provided to area First Nations until February when it was disclosed to the public and federal and provincial environment ministers along with news of a second release of 5.3 million litres of tailings.
Earlier this week, federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault repeated his call for a stronger federal presence when it comes to environmental monitoring and communications in the oilsands in light of the Kearl seepages.
Guilbeault also repeated his plan for a new body with federal, provincial and First Nation members that would meet regularly to share information, especially on environmental emergencies. It would also discuss cleaning up tailings releases, how to keep the vast toxic ponds contained and long-term solutions for them.
Guilbeault said officials from Imperial and the Alberta Energy Regulator will be invited to appear before the House of Commons environment and sustainable development committee.
Smith said she welcomes the joint working group but echoed earlier comments from Alberta Environment Minister Sonya Savage that the committee hearings would be a needless, politically motivated distraction.
“They’re trying to distract from the problems that they have in Ottawa on the investigation into Chinese interference in the election,” said Smith.
In public statements, Savage has agreed on the need to look at communication between the two levels of government as well as long-term solutions to oilsands tailings, which cover 300 square kilometres and hold 1.4 trillion litres of toxic tailings.
Smith said the spills reinforce the need to accelerate work with Ottawa to find a solution to clean up the tailings ponds.
“We can’t just keep building tailings ponds out and we can’t just keep managing and monitoring,” said Smith.
“We have to find a way to eliminate the (wastewater) after it has been cleaned and make sure we’re reducing the further liability. That’s the big problem.”
Changes coming to ensure prompt
· The Canadian Press ·
Premier Danielle Smith says laggardly public notification of Imperial Oil oilsands wastewater spills has illuminated the need for Alberta to ensure future alarms are sounded quicker.
Smith says her government is working with the province's oilsands regulator to develop better policies to give affected groups timely notification.
"Good practice and being a good neighbour [means] more communication is better," Smith said Tuesday at an unrelated news conference in Mundare, Alta.
"That's going to be our approach going forward. I've talked to the environment minister about that and the energy minister about that and the regulator about that," she said.
"We'll be working with the [Alberta Energy Regulator] to develop new processes to make sure that any time there is an incident that the comms are clear, that we have radical transparency and, just even as a courtesy, make sure any impacted party has a heads-up so they don't have any fear based on the misinformation they see on social media or in the media."
Area First Nations and the Northwest Territories government have said they should have been kept in the loop on the spills from Imperial's Kearl mine tailings ponds.
The N.W.T. has called it a violation of its agreement with Alberta for timely updates on emerging threats to their shared watershed.
The first wastewater release was spotted and reported last May as discoloured water near a tailings pond at the Kearl site north of Fort McMurray.
It was found to be tailings seepage and no further updates were provided to area First Nations until February when it was disclosed to the public and federal and provincial environment ministers along with news of a second release of 5.3 million litres of tailings.
Earlier this week, federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault repeated his call for a stronger federal presence when it comes to environmental monitoring and communications in the oilsands in light of the Kearl seepages.
Guilbeault also repeated his plan for a new body with federal, provincial and First Nation members that would meet regularly to share information, especially on environmental emergencies. It would also discuss cleaning up tailings releases, how to keep the vast toxic ponds contained and long-term solutions for them.
Guilbeault said officials from Imperial and the Alberta Energy Regulator will be invited to appear before the House of Commons environment and sustainable development committee.
Smith said she welcomes the joint working group but echoed earlier comments from Alberta Environment Minister Sonya Savage that the committee hearings would be a needless, politically motivated distraction.
"They're trying to distract from the problems that they have in Ottawa on the investigation into Chinese interference in the election," said Smith.
Smith said the spills reinforce the need to accelerate work with Ottawa to find a solution to clean up the tailings ponds.
"We can't just keep building tailings ponds out and we can't just keep managing and monitoring," said Smith.
"We have to find a way to eliminate the [wastewater] after it has been cleaned and make sure we're reducing the further liability. That's the big problem."
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