Getting rid of the tailings, a mix of sand, salt, clay, and residual
bitumen and solvents, would allow the industry and the province to clear
a multi-billion-dollar liability. The new rules, under development by
the two governments and industry, would “authorize discharges of treated
effluent,” the Globe states, “even though the sector’s biggest
companies have yet to show they can effectively clean the toxin-laced
water on a commercial scale.”