1,606 Ducks Died Landing On Toxic Waste Pond

EDMONTON, Alberta — Eleven hundred more ducks died after landing on a toxic waste pond in northern Alberta last year than was originally estimated, a Canadian oil sands official acknowledged Tuesday.

The carcasses of 1,606 ducks were collected from the oily waters, compared to the 500 originally counted, Syncrude Canada chief executive Tom Katinas said.

The deaths of the mallards last April drew widespread attention and prompted Prime Minister Stephen Harper to lament that Canada's international reputation had been tarnished by it.

Syncrude was accused of failing to prevent the birds from landing near the toxic waters and faces a maximum $634,000 fine.

Canadian law requires that all such ponds have the noisemaking devices to scare the birds and prevent them from landing. The company has said a spring snowstorm delayed the deployment of noisemaking cannons.

Katinas released the updated figure after an Alberta court granted Syncrude more time to enter a plea. He apologized for the incident but did not explain why Syncrude is only now acknowledging the larger number.

Oil sands form an important Canadian industry but the process of separating out the oil has been criticized by environmentalists as highly polluting.

The pond contained waste from the separation process. Dozens of toxic tailings ponds have been building up over 40 years in northern Alberta. A plan announced earlier this year aims to force companies to clean up the sludge over several decades.

Comments

[SeaKitten]

11:27 PM on 04/05/2009

I don't want to sound like a quack, but I've heard that this story is a fraud being exploited by a slick lawyer. All he wants to do is ruffle some feathers and get a jury to take a quick gander at this and make him a few bills. It's a slick approach, but I hope it lands him in jail where he deserves to be goosed.

[AngieMom57]

01:15 PM on 04/04/2009

There is a solution that I watched presented www.Ted.com

[kittyarmy]

08:24 PM on 04/03/2009

That's so sad. Poor ducks.

[rikkirighteous]

03:20 PM on 04/03/2009

These ducks will, in time, through the magic of evolution, develop the ability to absorb the oil into their skin and turn it into energy.

Until that time, all the others who are dumb enough to land on these ponds without learning from the mistakes of their predecessors will die.

How does that evolution thing go again? If a million fish wash up onto shore, eventually one (sorry, two...I feel the need to breed) will develop lungs and feet and the ability to jump up on a rock and keep falling off until they develop wings and the muscles to fly and then lose their feet and push out feathers and then...

[StanlyManly]

12:57 PM on 04/04/2009

You could go look at a muskipper or lungfish I guess. Or perhaps look at a bat, a flying squirrel, a flying frog, a flying snake, a flying lizard....

Or you can keep your eyes continually closed, while streaming tears, praising your god with hands outstretched to the heavens. Wont matter. Evolution will happen with or without you.

Keep pecking that button.

[Soapfan]

09:24 PM on 04/01/2009

In Canada they takeover unspolied lakes and dump toxic waste into them.

The Ducks were killed due to the Tar Sands.

[ashleelisbeth]

03:42 PM on 04/01/2009

Absolutely inexcusable in my opinion.

[sarabono]

02:19 PM on 04/01/2009

I guess the near term solution would be to suspend nets over the ponds to keep the ducks and other flyers away form the ponds. Or maybe to create jobs, the US should mandate dome roofs over toxic waste ponds.

[AngieMom57]

11:44 AM on 04/01/2009

Just down the road there was a little bit of a problem with fruit flies and the lunch room crowd getting throat cancer, yet if you are not one of the 10,000 workers that give life and health to earn a living it might not have caught your eye in the news: Hanford Nuclear Waste Reservation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jg_zw38G7Ms

Men like if not Tom Carpenter himself should be part of this new administration.

[patianneb]

11:36 AM on 04/01/2009

Canada's already tarnished international reputation (BABY SEAL HUNT now in progress) just gets worse every day.

[JScott]

11:13 AM on 04/01/2009

Similar incident happened in Calif. several years ago at Kesterson Wildlife refuge.
The wildlife got too much selenium (from the ag drainage water) and died.
Dunno if was resolved I think they stopped letting farmers drain their water directly into the refuge.
I'm sure one can google for more info.

[joshquasimoto]

11:12 AM on 04/01/2009

I realize that these energy companies fuel much of the reality that is modern society but with progress we have found more neutral methods for extracting energy. This is why it is so important to make these changes now as resources become scarcer and harder to manage. For all of those that oppose my sort of reasoning I welcome your arguments and hope that we may have civil discourse.

[joshquasimoto]

11:10 AM on 04/01/2009

Are you kidding me with this line, "Dozens of toxic tailings ponds have been building up over 40 years in northern Alberta. A plan announced earlier this year aims to force companies to clean up the sludge over several decades."

So let me get this straight energy companies turn ponds into toxic swamps and then in this particular case it results in the deaths of over a 1000 ducks and then they get decades to clean up there mess.
Whatever happened to leaving things as you found them? What's with all the energy commercials by energy companies talking about how clean their processes are(by the way I realize that some of the processes used happened to be cleaner than this particular case but none the less most of the public has a distorted view of what exactly these processes entail which is why in the US companies have to go through environmental assessments)?

What if I poured toxic sludge into some property of mine. If someone noticed and brought this up to the government I find it quite hard to believe that I would get decades to clean it up, so why the preferential treatment? Oh, I forgot they supply much of our energy and therefore have more to bargain with against our government and public interest. This is essentially what is in many ways wrong about the direction we are heading. Leave things as you found them and be a good steward for the next generation.

[ChiProgressive]

10:33 AM on 04/01/2009

poor ducks

This whole oil sands business is very dubious. This just puts the last nails in the coffin.

I expected more from you O' Canada.