Syncrude charged in deaths of 31 good blue herons during oilsands mine

The Alberta Energy Regulator has charged Syncrude Canada in a deaths of 31 good blue herons detected during a pool during a Mildred Lake cave north of Fort McMurray two years ago.

• 30 blue herons found passed during Syncrude Mildred Lake site
• Syncrude blue heron deaths: A demeanour during ‘the kingship of a wetlands’

The association is charged with unwell to store a dangerous piece to ensure it does not come into hit or pervert animals, according to a news release from a regulator. The charges were laid underneath a Environment Protection and Enhancement Act.

Syncrude orator Will Gibson pronounced a oilsands association is “truly saddened and deeply regrets” a genocide of a birds that occurred in an dead partial of a mine.

“Our idea is to forestall a deaths of birds and other wildlife as a outcome of a operations,” Gibson said. “We have already taken stairs to residence this after consulting with wildlife attention experts.”

Canons, strobe lights, radar

Gibson said Syncrude has done changes to a waterfowl insurance plan, not only during tailings comforts after identical incidents, though also on other bodies of water.

The changes embody installing strobe lights, scarecrows, sound devices and a radar-based anticipation that activates propane-fired sound canons when birds approach.

There’s also a executive bird-monitoring and control centre with year-round staffing, especially during famous bird emigration times.

“We know a open expects a attention to yield appetite in a obliged way,” Gibson said. “We are committed to obliged development.”

This occurrence has strengthened a solve to make certain halt systems are everywhere they need to be on a sites. #ymm #oilsands 3/5

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@SyncrudeCanada

Syncrude faces a limit excellent of $500,000. It is scheduled to seem in justice in Fort McMurray on Sept. 27.

The occurrence was reported to a AER on Aug. 7, 2015.

Fine satisfactory or fowl?

Environmentalists are praising a charges, though some contend a excellent still doesn’t fit a crime.

“How many times do incidents like this need to start before we see stronger movement from a supervision pronounced Greenpeace spokesperson Mike Hudema. “That’s a fine Syncrude can pay-off in a integrate of hours value of profits.”

Cleo Desjarlais Reece, co-chair of a Keepers of a Athabasca Watershed Society, welcomed the charges.

“I am unequivocally happy,” Desjarlais Reece said. “We have good concerns about a wildlife, about a birds and a water.”​

One of hundreds of ducks that landed on a Syncrude tailings pool on Apr 28, 2008. (Government of Alberta)

Syncrude was fined $3 million when more than 1,600 ducks died after alighting on a tailings pool in 2008.

In Oct 2010, some-more than 550 birds died or had to be killed when an early winter charge forced them to land on rubbish ponds belonging to Syncrude and Suncor.

In Nov 2015, 122 birds were killed after alighting on 3 tailings ponds in a area, including one during Mildred Lake. 

Follow David Thurton, CBC’s Fort McMurray correspondent, on Facebook, Twitter or hit him via email.

Article source: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/syncrude-bird-deaths-2015-oilsands-environment-greenpeace-1.4234472?cmp=rss