Tag Archives: tailings pond

Buried report raises questions about oilsands bird monitoring program

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

This entry was posted in General and tagged alberta, birds, environment, oilsands, tailings pond on January 21, 2021 by Steve.

Link

A Nova Scotia ‘gold rush’ means more threats for at-risk Atlantic salmon, even in areas that are meant to be protected | The Narwhal

The project, proposed by Atlantic Gold (Atlantic Gold was purchased by St Barbara, an Australian gold mining company, last year. St Barbara now runs Atlantic Gold Operations in Nova Scotia), would involve the construction of an open-pit gold mine one kilometre long, half a kilometre wide and a maximum of 170 metres deep alongside the river. In total, the project would involve some 240 hectares (roughly 450 football fields).

The initial processing at Cochrane Hill would result in tailings ponds on site, contained behind dams perched above the St. Mary’s watershed. Any treated effluent would be discharged into the Cameron Lakes, which drain through McKeens Brook, arguably the most productive spawning habitat on the river, according to Beaver.

Modern open-pit gold mines operate differently, aiming to extract only small flakes of gold diffused throughout tonnes of rock. Rock is excavated, crushed and treated to leach out gold. The remnants are then deposited in a waste pile and resulting chemical muds are stored in tailings ponds, which remain long after the life of a mine.

February 15, 2020

Steve MacLellan

Ramble On

Tag Archives: tailings pond

Buried report raises questions about oilsands bird monitoring program