April 27 (Reuters) – In early February, Chief Allan Adam of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation in northern Alberta began fielding calls from neighborhood members after the provincial regulator revealed poisonous wastewater had been leaking for months from a tailings pond at Imperial Oil’s (IMO.TO) Kearl oil sands mine.
Many in the neighborhood hunt and fish downstream of Canada’s big bitumen mines, and needed to know if the sport meat of their freezers was fit for human consumption.
“I simply informed them throw the meat away,” Adam mentioned. “Do not even feed it to your canine.”
The seepage was found by Imperial, a unit of Exxon Mobil (XOM.N), final Could however native communities solely discovered the water contained tailings in February, after a second leak occurred.
Imperial CEO Brad Corson apologized for the leak and the lapse in communication throughout questioning at a parliamentary committee in Ottawa final week.
In response to Reuters questions, Imperial mentioned it’s addressing the seepage by drilling further monitoring and assortment wells, and there’s no indication of impacts to wildlife or fish.
The leaks have reignited issues amongst First Nations, coverage makers and environmentalists about Canada’s huge oil sands tailings ponds, which reached a quantity of 1.35 billion cubic metres in 2021.
A slurry of sand, clay, residual bitumen and water containing naphthenic acids and metals, tailings ponds can kill birds that land on them and are pricey and sophisticated to wash up. Oil sands mining corporations are answerable for decontaminating the roughly 30 man-made lakes that maintain decades-worth of wastewater, and ultimately restoring the panorama.
Bitumen mining, which began in 1967, contributes round a 3rd of Canada’s 4.9 million barrels a day of oil manufacturing. Three corporations function the eight mines operating right this moment: Imperial, Suncor Vitality (SU.TO) and Canadian Pure Sources Ltd (CNQ.TO).
However after a long time of mining, corporations have barely began land reclamation and regulators, policymakers and Indigenous communities are struggling to resolve how finest to take care of the waste.
Now the Kearl leak has stoked opposition to a proposal trade and the Canadian authorities have been engaged on since 2017: growing effluent rules that might permit corporations to launch handled tailings water into the Athabasca River, which feeds one of many world’s largest freshwater deltas.
The Mining Affiliation of Canada (MAC) says oil corporations have the flexibility to decontaminate tailings water and have to launch it – at a price of two% of the Athabasca’s annual movement – to reclaim the ponds.
However some Indigenous communities and environmental teams say they don’t belief trade to make the wastewater secure. They’re urging Ottawa to gradual the event of the rules, due by 2025, and overhaul how tailings are managed.
“There have been already issues about tailings seeping into the river – this (leak) heightens the concern, the priority and the shortage of belief,” mentioned Melody Lepine, director of presidency and trade relations for the Mikisew Cree First Nation.
Lepine mentioned her neighborhood was questioning whether or not the wastewater may very well be faraway from the area altogether for disposal. Different prospects embody pumping among the water into deep wells or storing it in underground lakes, consultants mentioned, however the sheer quantity of accrued tailings means there aren’t any good choices.
Imperial declined to touch upon issues in regards to the effluent rules. Canadian Pure didn’t reply to requests for remark for this story.
Trade has not mentioned precisely how it might deal with tailings water earlier than launch into the Athabasca. Rodney Visitor, director of water and closure at Suncor, mentioned it’s going to take three or 4 years after the effluent rules are finalized for trade to develop a remedy plan.
BROKEN TRUST
Imperial first seen swimming pools of orange floor water in 4 areas close to its Kearl website final Could. The corporate informed the Alberta Vitality Regulator (AER) and notified native First Nations, however didn’t replace communities when testing confirmed the water contained tailings.
Ottawa solely discovered of the seepage 9 months later when the AER issued an environmental safety order, after a second spill of 5,300 cubic meters from a Kearl drainage pond.
The AER’s CEO Laurie Pushor apologized on Monday for poor communication with Indigenous communities.
First Nations say the Kearl leak and its dealing with by Imperial and the AER are the newest failing in a flawed provincial regulatory system by which oil corporations have been allowed to largely police themselves.
“We name that regulatory seize,” Lepine mentioned. “We can’t depend on trade to self-monitor and that is why we’d like stronger enforcement.”
Imperial declined to touch upon regulatory points.
Requested about Indigenous issues round tailings administration, Visitor mentioned Suncor works with the AER to fulfill regulatory circumstances and engages with communities to handle their issues.
Ottawa arrange a crown-Indigenous working group with 9 communities in 2021 to contemplate the proposed effluent rules, which might be just like guidelines governing Canada’s steel and diamond mines.
Lepine mentioned First Nations wish to take into account options. After a long time of tailings administration being left to corporations and the AER, they need the federal authorities to take a broader view of how tailings ponds can be reclaimed and who pays for it.
Remediating oil sands mines might value C$130 billion ($95 billion), based on a 2018 inner AER memo, although in an official estimate the regulator places the price round C$34 billion. A oil sands mine clean-up fund, which corporations pay into to cowl end-of-life obligations, held simply $913 million in 2022.
The federal ministry Surroundings Canada mentioned it’s conscious First Nations don’t belief the system in place.
“The dialog will proceed in our crown-Indigenous working group on the long-term administration of those environmental liabilities which are tailing ponds,” spokeswoman Kaitlin Energy mentioned.
A federal authorities supply with data of the scenario, who just isn’t approved to talk with media, mentioned Surroundings Canada could be very eager to help communities’ calls to take a step again on growing the rules however time is operating out as tailings ponds get nearer to reaching capability.
The effluent rules may very well be a possibility for Ottawa to introduce extra aggressive guidelines round how corporations deal with tailings earlier than the water is launched, the supply added.
“There’s an urgency to maneuver however we’re not simply going to impose authorities rules,” the supply mentioned. “The belief was missing anyway, this was all the time going to be difficult and (Kearl) makes it tougher.”
($1 = 1.3622 Canadian {dollars})
Reporting by Nia Williams; modifying by Claudia Parsons
Our Requirements: The Thomson Reuters Belief Rules.
