Photo by Alain Carpentier, CC BY 3.0

A lack of transparency, inadequate testing of bird protection systems and insufficient regulatory oversight characterize Alberta’s system of safe-guarding birds from perishing in oilsands tailings ponds, according to a previously unreleased internal report prepared for the Alberta Energy Regulator.

The comprehensive report, obtained by The Narwhal through a freedom of information request, found regulatory approaches have resulted in “a situation that maximizes the appearance of bird protection while appearing to impede actual bird protection.”

The regulator’s freedom of information office initially refused to release the report to The Narwhal, saying St. Clair was contracted “for the purpose of assisting a public body dealing with an issue or problem, or to establish a policy, or to make a decision” and it was therefore withholding the document from the public. Following a review by the province’s Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner, the regulator was ultimately required to release the report.

Birds dying at tailings ponds received international attention in 2008, when 1,600 ducks landed on a tailings pond at Syncrude and ultimately perished.

More recently, 31 great blue herons died after landing on a sump pond at Syncrude in 2015.

Both incidents resulted in charges and millions of dollars in fines.

And earlier this year, just as the Alberta Energy Regulator temporarily suspended much environmental monitoring at the oilsands, citing the COVID-19 pandemic, dozens of grebes and shorebirds died after landing on an Imperial Oil tailings pond.

Source: Buried report raises questions about oilsands bird monitoring program