An important operator in Alberta oil leaves is appealing a regulatory fine of $ 278,000 that was issued after hundreds of birds died in one of their toxic tailings ponds.
Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. was sanctioned last year by Alberta’s energy regulator for not preventing birds from aniding on an island that emerged from a pond in the oil -horizon mine, about 60 kilometers north of Fort McMurray.
Throughout the spring and summer of 2022, more than 400 Gaviotas de California died from exposure to contaminated water.
CNRL was convicted of a single count under the Environmental Protection and Improvement Law for not safely containing the dangerous substances found in their tailings ponds.
Six months since the fine was imposed, the Aer has now granted the company based in Calgary permission to appeal the sanction.
Critics say CNRL should assume responsibility for environmental infractions.
‘The wrong message’
“Send the wrong message,” said David Spink, an environmental consultant and former regulator of the Alberta government industry.
“There is no doubt that the birds died and there is no doubt that it was their installation responsible.”
In a statement to CBC News, Aer said that the sanction is eligible for an appeal under the regulations established in the Law of Responsible Energy Development, but an audience date has not yet been established. CNRL declined to comment, citing the pending review.
Spink, who once served as air and water approval director for Alberta, said the fine is a small price to pay an oil and gas giant like CNRL. The Calgary -based operator reported a net income of $ 8.2 billion in 2023.
The appeal shows that CNRL is not willing to respond for its infractions, he said.
“They may not be eager to accept this stain in their environmental history,” he said.
The contravention is among a chain of massive birds in oil sands.
High profile landings caused years of research and monitoring aimed at preventing flocks from dying in the extension of Alberta tailings ponds.
Athabasca oil sands are in the center of an important migration path for birds and protecting the species that fly over the region is a license condition for all oil producers.
A ‘perfection standard’
CNRL has previously denied its negligence in bird deaths of 2022. At that time, the company argued that it should not be maintained at a “standard of perfection” in its efforts to protect birds.
The regulator in turn, ruled that CNRL did not take reasonable measures to avoid deaths not destroying the island before becoming an nesting site.
Colleen Cassady St. Clair, a biologist at the University of Alberta and expert in bird deaths in the oil character, said CNRL should have known that the islands in the tailings ponds were attractive to birds and represented a risk to pass the flocks .
St. Clair was the principal researcher of the Avian Protection Research Project, a three -year study that examined how to better protect birds in Alberta’s oil sands after 1,600 died in a synchruded tailings pond in 2008.
She said the industrial hazards for birds have been well understood for decades.
“They had a lot of warning,” he said. “They don’t have to be perfect, but they should try to absolutely minimize those mortalities.
“It is difficult to see an argument that they could not have anticipated this problem.”
The case dates back to the spring of 2022 when mine workers discovered birds on the island in an area known as Tar River Valley on the north side of the Horizon mine.
The island had taken the previous spring, in the center of a tailings pond, due to the waters in recoil and resurfaced the following year.
According to formal bird protection protocols of the CNRL, such islands must be destroyed to prevent birds from touching. But the company did not act in this case. They considered the low risk of the island since the birds had initially shown interest.
The small stretch of land soon became an nesting and hatching site for bird colonies.
By May 21, 2022, CNRL workers had a single nest of Canadian geese and 271 California seagull nests along their beaches.
The company informed the regulator on June 7, more than two weeks later. By then, CNRL reported that he had installed bird deterrence on the island, including pyrotechnics and rockets.
But novatadas efforts were not successful. Every day, the seagulls would disperse and land again.
On July 12, CNRL reported that between 60 and 70 California seagull chicks were discovered on the island, covered with oil.
As the weeks went by, the workers continued to find corpses and seagull girls with a lack of bitumen. The predators, including the wolves and the coyotes, passed through the shallow waters to hunt on the island, feeding on contaminated flocks and rinsing more birds in toxic waters.
The situation continued until August 4, when the surviving chicks were old enough to fly.
According to the regulator, 411 birds died before the island was finally destroyed that September.
Even an greased light can threaten his survival, interfering with his ability to eat, fly and protect himself from the elements.
Dirty birds can be trapped in the thick liquid, often drowning with the weight of their feathers.
The toxic grout found in the tailings can not only get sick to birds, but it can also be toxic to other wildlife that consume them.
‘Evasion of responsibility’
The company argued that, due to the Law on the Convention of Migration Birds, there were little that could be done once the nests were established.
St. Clair described that argument as “slippery” and said that the findings of Aer’s investigation were clear.
“Many months of inaction are not consistent with an attitude of due diligence,” he said.
It is difficult to understand why CNRL has launched an appeal and erode public confidence in the operator, he said.
“I think the public has some errors tolerance, whether this industry or any other industry, and less tolerance for the evasion of responsibility.”
